Sacred Picklocks

Whenever you cannot understand a text, open your Bible, bend your knee, and pray over that text, and if it does not split into atoms and open itself, try again.

If prayer does not explain it, it is one of the things God did not intend for you to know, and you may be content to be ignorant of it.

Prayer is the key that opens the cabinets of mystery.

Prayer and faith are sacred picklocks that can open secrets, and obtain great treasures! There is no college for holy education like that of the blessed Spirit, for He is an ever-present tutor, to whom we have only to bend the knee, and He is at our side, the great expositor of truth.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, commonly called "the Prince of Preachers," wrote the above statements. We have, at salvation, been installed into the family of God. But there is more to it than just that. We have also become part of His home. We are members of his house and with that come certain responsibilities or chores. According to I Corinthians 4:1 we have been installed in His home as servants and stewards (similar to a manager). What is it though that we have to manage? Well, the verse answers that question, "Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." We are to manage the mysteries of God. Tough call. This means, I think, that we are to become familiar and skillful with the Scriptures. Capable of realizing the call in II Timothy 2:16 to "accurately handle the word of truth." A Word which is as sharp as a sword and which requires the expertise of a good swordsman, yet with the caution of a wise one as well. C. S. Lewis wrote, "The sword glitters not because the swordsman set out to make it glitter but because he is fighting for his life and therefore moving it very quickly." Our responsibility, even our capability, are no call for pride. We are managing/handling the Scriptures because we are commanded to, and our only real access to them is through the "sacred picklocks" that Spurgeon wrote of - prayer and faith.