Do I Let the Bible Speak?
Full question: Do I give time for the Bible to speak to me every day?
Read Hebrews 4:12-13.
To be honest, being a pastor makes it difficult to read the Bible. Not that I don't read the Bible. I read it every day. It's just that when Sunday is coming every week, my radar is always "on" for some nugget of truth, some insight, something that will "preach." It's hard to let the Bible speak to me when I so often have to speak on behalf of the Bible.
Let's get at this question another way: what if instead of "the Bible" we asked it about our spouse or someone who is very important to us? Do we allow that person to speak to us every day? Granted, there are days when Cathy and I aren't physically in the same space together, due to our crazy schedules, but there isn't any day where we don't chat, communicate, whether via text or on the phone or email. I can't imagine letting a day go by where I don't "hear" from her in some way.
Yet I know there are days when I do that to God, the one who made me, sustains me and saves me. If we believe that the Bible is the word of God which reveals the Word of God (cf. John 1:1), if we believe that this Scripture is "alive and active" and helps us see how we are to live, when then is it so easy to not allow it to speak to us, to me, each and every day? Yet, there are days when I read the Bible and my mind drifts so that when I get done I have no idea what I have read, or there are other days when I read it and find something that will "preach" rather than listening to a voice that will give me life. I am striving to do better. I have stopped myself and made myself go back and read the passage over again if I'm not listening. I try to set aside time in the morning, before the day gets going, when I will read and listen without focusing on "work." But it's not easy. It's hard to listen when we think we already know what it says.
Last night, my daughter told me she is doing these questions, but all of her answers seem to be "sometimes." I told her, "Me, too." And that's okay, because we believe we're "going onto" perfection; we have not arrived there already. The questions are meant so spur us on to more faithfulness.
Do I allow the Bible to speak to me every day? Some days I do, and some days I'm in too much of a hurry to listen. Today, I'm praying, is one of the days when I slow down and hear what God wants to say to me in this book.
Read Hebrews 4:12-13.
To be honest, being a pastor makes it difficult to read the Bible. Not that I don't read the Bible. I read it every day. It's just that when Sunday is coming every week, my radar is always "on" for some nugget of truth, some insight, something that will "preach." It's hard to let the Bible speak to me when I so often have to speak on behalf of the Bible.
Let's get at this question another way: what if instead of "the Bible" we asked it about our spouse or someone who is very important to us? Do we allow that person to speak to us every day? Granted, there are days when Cathy and I aren't physically in the same space together, due to our crazy schedules, but there isn't any day where we don't chat, communicate, whether via text or on the phone or email. I can't imagine letting a day go by where I don't "hear" from her in some way.
Yet I know there are days when I do that to God, the one who made me, sustains me and saves me. If we believe that the Bible is the word of God which reveals the Word of God (cf. John 1:1), if we believe that this Scripture is "alive and active" and helps us see how we are to live, when then is it so easy to not allow it to speak to us, to me, each and every day? Yet, there are days when I read the Bible and my mind drifts so that when I get done I have no idea what I have read, or there are other days when I read it and find something that will "preach" rather than listening to a voice that will give me life. I am striving to do better. I have stopped myself and made myself go back and read the passage over again if I'm not listening. I try to set aside time in the morning, before the day gets going, when I will read and listen without focusing on "work." But it's not easy. It's hard to listen when we think we already know what it says.
Last night, my daughter told me she is doing these questions, but all of her answers seem to be "sometimes." I told her, "Me, too." And that's okay, because we believe we're "going onto" perfection; we have not arrived there already. The questions are meant so spur us on to more faithfulness.
Do I allow the Bible to speak to me every day? Some days I do, and some days I'm in too much of a hurry to listen. Today, I'm praying, is one of the days when I slow down and hear what God wants to say to me in this book.
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