Our pastor told a story of a couple who invited their pastor over for dinner. After he left, the wife said to the husband, “I think he stole one of our spoons!” This caused great consternation for the couple. After some months had passed they got up the courage to invite the pastor over again and then asked him about the “stolen” spoon. He quietly went to their family Bible, opened it up, and the spoon dropped to the floor.
“Dusty Bibles lead to Dirty Lives,” another pastor said.
Since before the beginning of 2022 many sermons I’ve heard have either mentioned or focused on the need we have to be “reading our Bibles,” “meditating on the Word of God,” or “spending time in the Word of God.” This is certainly not the first time in my life I have heard such an exhortation, but with the circumstances of the world as they are, it seems like the need to know God, to know what God is doing, and to respond appropriately to God’s call is very, VERY important. We can’t go about life with an emailed daily Bible verse here or a once-a-week sermon there. It just isn’t enough spiritual food to nourish us – much less keep us strong in the fight – in this spiritual environment. We must be able to KNOW the Word of God, rightly understand it, and use it to explain and defend our faith.
Listening to other people’s messages, whether from your local pastor, an online video, or reading sermons, is fine and important. But ask God to help you dive deeper into the Bible so you get your OWN revelation, your own encouragement, your own marching orders, your own spiritual food. Ask yourself, “If the world shuts down completely and I don’t have my local church or online sources, would I have enough grounding in the Word of God to be able to hear from God and obey?”
And we need to realize that just as a person’s nutritional or exercise needs change over a lifetime, our spiritual needs change, too. If you look back to your life five or ten years ago (or 20 or 30 or…) I expect you would say that things have changed. Your life is different now than it was in past seasons so you need a new revelation from the Word of God for this season. Just as God doesn’t put new wine in old wineskins (Matthew 9:17), he wants to give you a fresh feeding from his Word specific to the life you are leading now. If God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23), his ability to speak to us – to commune with us – is continually available, too. Disciples spend quality time in the Word regularly.
Just because we’re already in the middle of February, don’t think it’s too late to set up a new Bible reading plan. Whether you want to read through the Bible in a year, in 90 days, or something in between, there’s a plan for that. (See https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/ for more ideas.)
So, make a plan to succeed at reading the Word of God this year. Unlike physical hunger which can be satisfied by a meal, spiritual hunger will grow when you feed it. As you read it more, you will crave it more, and it will more and more influence your life. As the Word becomes “flesh” within you, as it dwells in you richly, you will know God’s glory and be full of grace and truth.
Word of God,
Thank you for calling us by Holy Spirit to be your children and for placing within us the hunger for you. Thank you for that spiritual hunger and for the Bible which feeds that hunger. Thank you for honorable, truthful, and gifted pastors and Bible teachers who help us to understand and digest your Word; help us in our own studies to see and understand what we need to know for this season of our lives. Thank you that your faithfulness, grace, and mercy is new every morning and that you never tire or grow weary from meeting with us to teach and encourage us. Show us what we need to know – give us our daily bread – for this day, for this season of life, and may your Word dwell in us richly so we are full of grace and truth. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
“The eternal God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t grow tired or become weary.” (Isaiah 40:28 GW)
“God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He’s all I’ve got left.” (Lamentations 3:22-24 MSG)
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NASB)
“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.” (1 Peter 3:15 NLT)
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:15-17 ESV)