A prayer to prepare our hearts to read and meditate on God’s word.
O God of truth,
I thank thee for The Holy Scriptures,
Their precepts, promises, directions, light.
In them, may I learn more of Christ, be enabled to retain its truth, and have grace to follow it.
Help me to lift up the gates of my soul that He may come in and show me Himself when I search The Scriptures,
For I have no lines to fathom its depths, no wings to soar to its heights.
By His aid, may I be enabled to explore all its truths, love them with all my heart, embrace them with all my power, engraft them into my life.
Bless to my soul all grains of truth garnered from thy Word;
May they take deep root,
Be refreshed by heavenly dew,
Be ripened by heavenly rays,
Be harvested to my joy and Thy praise
Help me to gain profit by what I read,
As a treasure beyond all treasure
A fountain which can replenish my dry heart,
Its waters flowing through me as a perennial river on-drawn by Thy Holy Spirit
Enable me to distil from its pages faithful prayer that grasps the arm of Thy omnipotence, achieves wonders, obtains blessings, and draws down streams of mercy.
From it show me how my words have often been unfaithful to Thee, injurious to my fellow men, empty of grace, full of folly, dishonouring to my calling.
Then write Thy own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips;
So shall all glory be to Thee in my reading of Thy Word!
Source: The valley of vision, compiled by Arthur Bennet, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975.