Prayer and Promises

Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

Truth is from above, error is from beneath, and those who will not give close attention to the study of God’s word will not understand the principles that should control the life, and will be inclined to accept error, because it is easier for them to do this than to search for truth. In order to know the truth as it is in Jesus, we must give ourselves to thoughtful, prayerful study of the Scriptures. 

Through the Scriptures the voice of God comes to us as veritably as it came to Israel when he spoke on Sinai in the audience of all the people. How many of us regard it in this light?

With what reverence and awe would we search the word of God to know the truth, the medium through which the soul’s sanctification is accomplished... Our spiritual development depends upon our knowledge of the truth, upon our practice of its divine principles as embodied in the precepts of the law and in the teaching of our Lord. 

In order to understand the sayings of our Lord, we should carefully and prayerfully contemplate the words of truth, not merely to reach that comprehension of them which the people of an earlier age might have had, but to reach a deeper significance; for if our minds are illuminated by the Spirit of God, more and more of the force and meaning attached to them by the Saviour himself will come to our hearts. 

The disciples acknowledged that they did not understand Christ when he spoke to them of his sufferings and death, quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. He...promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to recall his sayings to them when they were better qualified to understand. 

We should pray that our understanding may be opened, that we may comprehend what Christ has said unto us; for we are to be sanctified through his word. 

— Signs of the Times, April 6, 1891