Importance: 10%
The Big Idea: Used as OSšEpistle in Series Mediation on Scripture, October 2021.
Life gets busy.Ā I often find myself forgetting to spend time reading and digesting Scripture.Ā All of us can find a thousand reasons why we donāt have time, or donāt know where to start, when it comes to slowing down and spending time in Godās word.Ā
Yet Scripture is Godās word to us.Ā It is the most sure and stable place to turn and hear God speaking to us.Ā Over the next few months, I want to share some thoughts about ways we can approach Scripture.Ā Not just as a chore or something that goes over our heads, but the real deep meaningful words of God.Ā
If you ask a history teacher how to read a historical book or a literature teacher how to read a classical piece of literature.Ā You are bound to come away with many useful approaches to understand the book more than you would if you read it without any help.Ā
Many bible studies, sermons, and devotions will use similar approaches to dig into things like the historical context or original language of a text.Ā These approaches have led to the creation of long papers, dissertations, and books carefully outlining details and clues buried within each and every corner of Scripture.Ā
This is a useful and insightful way to read scripture, but we need to be careful to not make reading scripture all about studying it as an object.Ā When we study an object, it is at armās length and does not affect who we are.Ā Scripture is not an object.Ā It is the living breathing words of God for us.Ā As we read Scripture, we must be willing to let it soak into the way we think, and perceive the world around us.Ā
As we seek to let Scripture into our hearts and minds, a helpful way to approach our bibles is thinking of having a conversation.Ā As we read word after word, we have a conversation between ourselves and the words of God.Ā Just like listening to a conversation partner, we seek to understand what the Author intended to say in a dynamic back and forth.Ā We pay attention to what is happening in the text.Ā We slow down to read and pay attention to what is being said and how. For example, what is the author saying and why?
Then we turn our focus to pay attention to what is happening inside ourselves.Ā How do these words of Scripture make me feel?Ā Do I relate to them or are they confusing to me? And so we have a conversation back and forth between what the words of Scripture are saying and my internal reactions. I am thus called into relationship with God, listening to His voice, and opening myself to His wonderful power.