The Bible is full of promises and demonstrations of the power of a life fueled by God's word. On the other hand, there are myriad warnings and examples of the decay and destruction that attends those who do not read or heed God’s word.There are two critical elements to begin and grow an increasingly intimate relationship with God, the Bible and prayer. Through the Bible, God reveals Himself, His Love, His plan, His ways, His Mind, His Heart. Prayer is our response to God's word. A life that is not bathed in these is at best weak, impoverished and adrift.

Consider this, that God had commanded that the kings of Israel were to make a personal copy of the law:

“Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countryment and that he may not turn aside to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

)If you read through I & II Kings and I & II Chronicles, you will probably be able to pick out the kings who did this. However, at some point the law was lost!

When we read the Bible, we learn who God is, what He is like, how accessible He is. God reveals Himself to us. We learn His ways. We learn His acts. There is no issue of life that is not addressed in the Bible.Prayer is our response to God. In fact, it is supposed to be conversation with God, but at the very least it is our response to God after reading or hearing His word. If you do not feel the urgent need to pray after time in His Word, then you are not reading it with your heart. You are smoking without inhaling. Reading God's Word with a hearing heart will produce an internal compulsive need to commune with Him, to inquire of Him, to repent, to experience His presence personally. He wants to have regular, open, sincere discourse with us. He wants it, because we need it! It adds nothing to Him, but it is existential to us!