CHARLES: I feel like the temptation is to find some exotic answer.
But the two pillars of the Christian faith are prayer and the ministry of the Word.
If you were ask me about Christian ministry, I would say the same thing "prayer and Scripture
intake."
And I think Psalm 1 comes to my mind, where the psalmist just begins the Psalms by just
offering you a blessed life, and that blessed life is rooted in the Word of God, "one who
delights in the Law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night."
Prayer is one of the neglected resources of the Christian life.
And in Hebrews chapter 4, we are told that we have, in the Lord Jesus Christ, a great
high priest who has passed through the heavens.
He is not a high priest that can't sympathize with our weakness but has been tempted in
every respect as we are, yet without sin.
And because of our high priest and His finished work, we can draw near with confidence to
the throne of grace.
I don't think we understand the remarkable privilege prayer is.
It is not some burdensome duty to obey.
It is a wonderful privilege to enjoy, and prayer brings its rewards because God answers
prayer.
But there is its own reward that comes from communion with God in prayer, in thanksgiving,
in confession, in intercession.
And that tied alongside to the Word of God that is a lamp for our feet and a light for
pathway, Psalm 119:105, are the fundamental means.
Anything else would be the things you add on, to supplement, to build on, to develop.
But the core has to start with prayer and Scripture.
BINGHAM: How would you encourage someone that comes to you and says, "I'm struggling to
pray," or "I'm struggling in trying to be faithful in reading the Scriptures," knowing
that those two things are so vital?
How would you speak to them?
CHARLES: Yes, so I do think that... well, I think there ought to be an awkwardness,
a struggle to...
I am nervous when people talk too comfortably about, for instance, prayer as if it is some
way similar to the conversation you and I are having here.
There should be this sense that we are having an audience with the living God.
Also, the struggle is a healthy thing, because I believe it reflects the significance of
prayer and Scripture that the world and the flesh and the devil come against these fundamental
things.
We can read social media and get lost in it for an extended period of time and get bored,
you know, when we start reading the chapter from the Bible.
We could talk to our friends about our problem for an hour and get sleepy, you know, on the
second line in the Lord's Prayer.
I think there is a spiritual warfare because the enemy of our souls would have us to come
against him with puny weapons rather than the power of God's Word and the power of prayer.
I would say that one of the reasons why prayer and Scripture intake are a struggle is because
these are spiritual disciplines, as the language is, these are spiritual disciplines.
And if you have not been, you know, in the gym, you don't just go in the gym and just
pick up the biggest weights.
It is as you are in the gym day in and day out, regularly doing the reps that muscle
develops, and strength grows.
And I really do feel like sometimes it seems like a crude answer, but I feel
like some people find it hard to pray because we don't pray, and we find it hard to read
the Bible because we don't read the Bible.
And I believe their prayer and Scripture intake are acquired tastes, and they have their,
there is this appetite that is developed for the Word of God the more you feed on it.
1 Peter chapter 2 says something interesting.
It says, "Lay aside all malice and deceit, envy, hypocrisy and slander, and as newborn
infants crave the pure spiritual milk of the Word that you may grow thereby."
But he first said there are things you need to get rid of as well, which suggests that
if my heart's attitude toward the Word of God is not what it should be, it will ruin
my appetite for the Word, and I think it will ruin my appetite toward prayer.
So I really do think that another key to overcoming those struggles is the simple prayer of Psalm
19 verse 14, to keep asking God, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my
heart be acceptable in Your sight."