I love, respect and cherish the Word of God. I am by no means a scholar, but I’d like to think that I can navigate my way around the general themes of scripture without getting lost. Although it never ceases to amaze me, when I hear a sermon or read a book, how much I still have to learn from the Bible.
The depth of wisdom, peace, and direction found in scripture blows my mind. For as many years as I’ve been reading the Bible, I should know far more than I do, but I lean on God’s grace and just keep studying.
The longer I study and the more I preach, the more I'm convinced that I’m not really that good of a person. (Hey, you’re not that good either!) Yes, God is kind and grants us gifts and abilities. God grants favor and blessing to you and me that is immeasurable. And I believe much of that comes from spending time in His Word and listening to what He has to say. You can’t overestimate the pure and raw value of time, and lots of it, in the Word. I hope you understand that there is huge power there.
Reading scripture requires you to slow down and put other things aside. I confess that don’t like that fact. Too often I find myself wanting to get the day going by checking my email and phone messages, starting my sermon prep work or any other task. But it’s a good thing to slow down, open His Word, study and reflect. And here’s the tough lesson to learn: This kind of slowing down allows you to run faster and live larger over the long haul.
Slowing down to inhale the depths of God’s truth is the X-Factor in exhaling a life in Christ that frankly you just can’t get any other way.
No comments:
Post a Comment