Prayer vs Bible Study

It has been said that prayer and God's Word are like two wings of a bird, if one is missing the bird will fly in circles.
In which do you spend most of your time?
Does prayer come more difficult or easier that bible reading/study/devotion?

NOTE: This is not a debate thread.

Both become much easier when yer retired, CN!

I think it IS a debate thread!!! just kidding. For me, prayer is easier, because I broke my glasses, and reading is harder without them.

LOL, I am retired but I still find Bible reading a tad easier than serious prayer...unfortunately

What do you mean by prayer? I ask because some people may think it only means kneeling down to recite by rote before crawling into bed. Now, I do pray that way, and according to Jesus, reciting the Lord's prayer is 100% acceptable, and yet I can achieve a greater sense of heart connection when my prayers come in the midst of any emotional turmoil that interferes with my peace of mind. I pray for acceptance, deliverance, and overcoming in such situations, which means fairly frequently. We are exhorted to pray continuously, and give thanks in all circumstances. God is good!

Hi Crossnote, for what it's worth, I've both read and heard the testimony of a number of spiritual leaders over the years (theologians/pastors) who say similar things about the difficulties they've experienced with prayer. Many not only find Bible study easier to do, they feel that their prayer life is (and always has been) inadequate/wanting (this, BTW, includes authors of books on the subject of prayer, men & women you would hardly suspect of having a problem like this until you read that they do).

The distractions we face today are many, and I believe this contributes to the difficulty (I also realize, to my shame, that this is also nothing but an excuse to justify my own inadequate prayer life, especially here of late ).

~Deut

Isn't retirement absolutely wonderful when you have God to share it with.

I don't see how prayer is possible without bible study. Prayer is communication with God, and how could you communicate with someone you don't know? I think just quietly listening is wonderful prayer, but again if you haven't been reading God's words or hearing them, your mind doesn't have any of His words to use to listen to.

We have the Holy Spirit within us, that adds and selects and teaches. But first, we must input the word for the Holy Spirit to use.

Here's what I've found. Of all the things the diciples saw Jesus do...raise the dead....walk on water....calm the storm, ....feed the 5000...
They asked the Lord one thing to teach them....."Lord teach us to pray". Jesus really must of been so moved by this request as I am sure his example inspired them all. But here's the real deal. After rebuking physically as well as verbally in the temple Jesus said "my house is a house of prayer" so I must concluded that prayer out weighs bible study when it comes to comparison.😉😉😉

Prayer through the blood of Jesus ans as Him as our only Intercessor for whichever way one is led to pray.

Interesting insight and take on the matter.

To follow up my earlier blunt answer above, I remember the Lord's Prayer was my very first prayer (age 25) I had sincerely prayed and it was at a time my eyes were opening up to the truth. It was also the first day in years things seemed to fall into place rather than continue to fall apart, as well as a sense of His presence persisted. And I simply read it as it was written in the Gospel...but with meaning.

Hard to quantify really I would say both.
Prayer can be as easy or hard as you make it (this is why the holy spirit helps us to pray) and reading the Bible can also be easy or hard (some people mke it harder than it needs to be) depending on how one approaches it. JEsus opened peoples eyes to scripture so ask for His understanding of it.

I would say without the holy spirit to help us neither is really possible on our own strength. Jesus would remark about the prayers prayed by hypocrites and the people that read scripture without even coming to Him so definitley there were people in his time that made a big show of prayer and bible reading i.e Pharisees and they were very religious but just couldnt grasp that God wants those who worship him in spirit and in truth.

Mind you the Pharisees did not have access to the scripture of the new testament at the time. For us, the new testament is a gift written down for us since Jesus is in heaven now interceding for us. It is a love letter from beginning to end. Note that the Old Testament did not have any personal letters instead its many narratives, psalms, wisdom and prophets warnings! Notice that Moses didnt write or include any letters to the israelites in his five books. But Paul wrote so many! As did Peter, James and John.

Our God is one who wants to communicate and Jesus makes it all personal. Instead of addressing the entire Israelites as a group as Moses and the prophets has in his day, one gets with Jesus one on one encounters. jesus said when you pray go into your closet and pray to your Father unseen and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you.

With so called popular spiritual leaders they pray so much out loud in front of others with long words that they may think their praying is enough to get by when actually God doesnt even hear them. They only pray so that they can be seen by others! Check out Proverbs 28:9

One has to approach prayer with a clean heart...you are addressing our Father...think about it is it easier to communicate with Him by talking so loudly that everyone else can hear and eavesdrop or is it better to go to Him when its quiet and one on one.

This reminds me of how important it is not to just 'barge into' His presence. We need to acknowledge each time that the privilege of coming into His presence to begin with was through the sacrificial blood of the Lamb

I am more of a bible studier than a prayer too.

But then I do have to say I wouldn't understand the bible in the least if the answers to my questions weren't revealed in prayer.

I've read books about being better at prayer, lol...

LOL, I've read those too, but stopped short and asked myself, 'why am I reading this instead of praying?'