Do you understand what you are reading? Acts 8:30
I was chatting with some very Bible-literate friends and they were marveling that so much of what the Bible is clear on is missed by so many people who avidly read the Bible. How can people miss what’s right in front of their eyes? I was explaining, from my background in cognition, how our brains pick up on an idea and then filter all new data through the filter of what we already know (or assume) and that makes us likely to read right over things that don’t square with the filter of what we already think.
It works like this: An idea is planted in our heads that we buy into. Then other ideas come along that don’t support or challenge our original idea. If we actually stop to consider these new ideas, we may find they create dissonance with our closely held belief. So, since our minds don’t like dissonance very much, rather than put up with the dissonance, we will either get angry at the person or book that presents the new idea, or more often, ignore it, without even realizing we’re doing it.
The evidence of this problem is everywhere. It’s the reason mystery-fiction writers can snooker us right up to the very end despite planting clues blatantly before our eyes. It’s the reason that political and religious zealots can completely miss the evidences that don’t support their mantra. It’s so pervasive in Bible teaching that I often pray that God would lead me beyond my own assumptions and understanding when I come to read or teach the Word. In fact, He has often answered that prayer and stretched my understanding.
It’s what takes us beyond the interpretations we’re comfortable with and pet proof texts we cling to in order to actually discover anew what God is saying in His Word. So, if… for our own good and others’ if we’re teachers or influencers… if we desire to be “filled with the knowledge of his will in ALL spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col 1:9) then prayer is our greatest aid in in studying the Bible.
The reasons are pretty clear:
1) As we pray, in two-way communication with our Father, we get to know Him better. We come to know His heart, without which we’ll never understand His Word very well. I have two adult children who are writers. There is no one who can read the books they pen with more understanding than me and others who are intimate with them because we know them through and through. We can pick up nuances others will miss. We can see connections that aren’t obvious. If you want to understand the Word better, focus on getting to know the One who wrote it.
2) As we pray, we open ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit Who lives within those of us who trust Jesus. One of His purposes, Jesus told us, is to guide us into ALL truth (Jn 16:13). We put up unnecessary walls between ourselves and the truth when we approach the Word without a strong communion with God’s Spirit. All the more irrational, many Christians barely know anything about the Holy Spirit (even book-learning) and have very little experience opening up their hearts and understanding to His influence… as if somehow the Bible has erased the need for God’s Spirit in our lives. If that last line I wrote make you nervous, it might be worth considering your own feelings about the Holy Spirit.
3) Prayer, by its very nature, calms our hearts and minds in Jesus… it tenderizes our stiffness and breaks down the walls of cognitive dissonance and overload, it tenderly dims all the other urgent things, the twaddle and the genuine matters, that are vying for our immediate attention and focuses us and our priorities on the One who really matters. It brings sanity to our thinking and calmness to our spirits… and joy, as well.