The Bible — A Music Box, or a Telephone?
Without constant feeding on the Word of God and continually living in an atmosphere of prayer no one can be maintained in a life of victory. At every cost we must set our faces like a flint to get the daily quiet time with God over the Word and in prayer. This does not mean that Bible study and prayer are the secret of victory. They are not, and many are hindered from victory by supposing that their more diligent Bible study and prayer will somehow bring them into victory. Faith is the secret of victory. But faith is impossible without the Word, and the maintaining of faith is impossible without continually abiding in the Word of God. An infant will not live without food and air, but we would not say that food and air were the secret of that life which the Creator alone could give.
The Victorious Life gives the secret of a hunger for the Bible and prayer. The Word of God becomes literally sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, and more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold. Our Lord expects the Bible to be a telephone, as Dr. Charles R. Watson has said, not a music box whose tunes are familiar and stale: we take the receiver from the hook, and the Lord Jesus Christ is at the other end of the line. It is really our privilege to have a personal message from the living God to our own souls every day, and at every moment of need.