Reading and Prayer

Recovery Ministry is planning 2022 as the “year of prayer.” When there is a focus on prayer, typically the importance of reading the Bible is equally present. The greatest support a person can give their recovery is time reading the Bible and praying.

Chapter 10 of Revelation brings the power of Holy Scripture front and center as the scene includes an angle with one foot on land and one on the sea. The angel is a representative for the Old Testament prophets speaking the very words of God for all creation, one foot on land and one on the sea (v. 1, 2, 3). The angle holds “a little scroll” (v. 2).

John, the author of Revelation, describes his interaction with the angel who holds the little scroll,

Revelation 10:9 (CSB)

9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

The angel echoes Psalm 119:103; “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” The words of the Bible are sweet with salvation, grace, and love. But reading all of the Bible includes reading about sin, judgement, and the challenge of change. In recovery we need the grace and the challenge.

Principle 7: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.