Our reading should be toward relishing God and delighting in Him-“to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord,” as David said (Psalm 27:4). God’s Spirit will let us know where to go from there. The important thing is to make a beginning. It’s not important how much time we spend at first. Then perhaps we will be ready for an hour every day. At first 10 or 15 minutes may be all we can manage. So much depends on our temperament, our family and job demands, the state of our health, our age and level of maturity. Start with a conscious desire to engage Him in a personal way. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a stimulus to our interaction with God. There’s a passing exhilaration-the “joy of discovery”-in acquiring knowledge about the Bible, but there’s no life in it. We want to move beyond information to seeing God and being informed and shaped by His truth. We should do more than read words we should seek the Word exposed in the words. The scholars read the Bible, but they didn’t listen to God they “never heard his voice” (John 5:37). These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). Jesus said to the best-read Bible students of His day, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.
The main purpose of reading the Bible, however, is not to accumulate data about Him, but to “come to Him,” to encounter Him as our living God.
We’re more intent on mastering the text-finding out its precise meaning, gathering theories and theologies-so we can talk more intelligently about God. The problem with many of us is that though we read God’s Word, we’re not feeding on God. Until we take time to be quiet we’ll not hear God.
0 kommentar(er)
