By Evan D. Burns
Andrew Fuller carefully explained the usefulness and spiritual benefit of prayerfully reading the Scriptures, as opposed to reading commentaries in substitution of meditation. He said that reading assists prayer, and prayer assists reading. Here are some suggestions he gives for reading the Bible prayerfully:[1]
Read Scripture prayerfully at set times each day, preferably in the mornings.
Let reading the Scriptures precede prayer, and then let prayer spur on more reading.
Maintain a tender, humble, holy frame of mind.
Pause, think, pray, and apply to your meditations to your daily life.
Only use commentators/expositors when you cannot resolve a difficult issue, and that only after thinking hard by yourself.
Writing down interesting thoughts fixes them to memory.
[1] Andrew Gunton Fuller, The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller, Volume 3: Expositions—Miscellaneous, ed. Joseph Belcher (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 788.
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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons. They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.