Learning to Pray 2

When I first began to read Scripture, there was much I could not understand.  What I did not know then is that, like often-repeated oral histories, one part of Scripture comments on and explains another part.  I remember reading a book at the time called How to Live Like a King's Kid.  The author, whose name I do not recall, tells of finding something in Scripture ---healing, I think----that people claim is not true for today.  He said to God, "If this is not true anymore, show me where you took it out of Scripture."  I remember thinking, "I don't talk to God this way, but I think I'll try it." 

Not long after that, I met a woman, an angel I think now, who was able to unfold for me mysteries of Scripture.  I could not get enough of  listening to her explain things to me.  I asked her, "How did you learn all of this?  Did you go to ministry school?"  She hesitated a moment and then said, "When I see something I don't understand, I ask God to show it to me."  Later, I recalled how the disciples did the same thing with Jesus and the parables.  So I started to pray Scripture instead of just reading it.  I asked the Holy Spirit to illumine my mind to grasp the things of God as I read.

Gradually, I began to see different Scriptures in relationship to one another.  I realized that the Bible was not written as a "Book," but as a library, and we could not read it as a "book;" we have to browse the library---and only the Holy Spirit knows what we need to read at any given moment of our lives.  If we enter the library alone, we are most likely to leave it soon; if we enter it with the Spirit of God, who so wants to teach us and guide us, we will probably want to spend more time there.