Today in church a story was shared about a boy who had received a bible for the first time. (My church held a retreat for 9-13 year old boys this past weekend.) The woman described the boy's reaction - how he jumped into the concordance and hungrily read verses on different topics, soaking it all up like a sponge. He was SO EXCITED to have a bible and to read all that was in it. He held this sense of wonder and amazement that a single book could hold advice over every life situation.
God spoke to me as I was listening to the woman share. He challenged me. He asked me what it would look like if every time I opened my bible, I read it as if I'd never seen a bible before.
This revelation floored me. Honestly, we've all heard so much about the value of meditating on God's word, but I'm not going to lie - sometimes I feel so familiar with a verse or passage that I close myself off and prevent God from speaking to me because I feel like I've seen it a billion times. It's not that I think I know the verse/passage inside out.. It's more like "I'm basically desensitized from this because I never meditate on it." And that's when the bible starts to get dry.
I took God up on His challenge tonight. I highly recommend you try it out if you don't already read like this (I know many people do.. props to you guys!). I really slowed down and read every single word.. and looked up the definitions of each word (even when I was super familiar with the word).. and pieced it all together as a sentence.. and pondered about why the verses were ordered as they were (figured out the author's train of thought).. and actually looked at the chapter headings (which I have a bad habit of skipping over at times).. and I was amazed at how much more I got out of my reading. I wish I would have started really digging into the word a lot sooner - like I've been told to over and over again - because I feel like an entire realm of understanding has been opened up to me.
A couple verses were dropped into my spirit as I wrote this.
Mark 10:15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
In other words, we need to approach the word with a child-like excitement and expectancy; and in our reading, we need to dig deeply to find the hidden treasure.
2 comments:
Oh Caitlin! This is so true! I read my bible daily. But frankly, sometimes I get real bored and just reading it like reading another storybook.
But recently, I am reading from the beginning of Old Testament and try to write down every family line of the characters in the bible. I find this really helpful.
I used to get frustrated reading the old testament because of the confusing relationship among the characters. And their names! haha. Weird names. But keeping myself consistent in writing and framing the family line of these characters, I somehow find it's fun! Because it helps me to trace back the family history of a certain character and to see how the characters in the bible actually interact with each other.
I need to regain that passion in getting my daily bread too. I pray that we will be able to get new revelation from His words and to read it with a child-like heart.
=)
ah Amy that's a good idea! bible geneology always confuses me :/
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