"It will help you to understand Scriptures, if you mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom or to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goes before and what follows after"- Miles Coverdale
I'm not the most studious person, in fact I'm more likely to just accept what someone says than I am to dig and find answers to uncover the truth. However there have been a few Spirit led diggings I've done throughout my years and those have proven to be some of the most insightful and eye opening experiences I've had. I miss having the oomph to get into the Word of God. Sometimes I need a push to get me there. And more often than not, that push to read my Bible and study it comes in the form of having to prove someone wrong. Sad right? I know. But I found something that both convicted me and excited me at the same 2 Tomothy 2:15- Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I started reading 2 Timothy a few nights ago and I found out that if I actually paid attention to each verse and tried to understand the meaning in each verse,then I had a LOT of questions. But seeing that in verse 15 it says to "Study" realized its talking about me, and people like me. The ones not too interested in studying. And from experience I know that when I consistantly read the Bible i grow as a person, I grow in understanding, I grow in peace. The only bad thing that comes from it is realizing how bad I am at keeping it up.
My children are children. Duh. But they take what I say at face value. I told my daughter once that my necklace of "fairy dust" was really fairy dust and I was given it by fairies... she believed me. Never doubted. Full on faith. Now I can be a real hypocrite, and here's an example. We don't even do santa clause or tooth fairy. Yet for some reason I thought this was harmeless. When her friends questioned her and my daughter told them that mommy would never lie... well, I was crushed! I immediately told her the truth and apologized and promised never to lie to her again.
My reason for bringing that up is because, first:God is not human, that He should lie. So we can trust Gods Word as absolute truth.
And Second: when we fail to study, we often come to wrong conclusions and therefore have very very skewed perceptions of who God really is. People say they want to know God more, well I do anyways, but if we never study what He is saying our ideas of who God is are limited to a childs understanding with an adults amount of faith, which lets just say is the worst combination you can have.
We need childlike faith, with Solomon like wisdom, and David like faithfulness. Read your Bible carefully. The verses you have known since childhood will stand out if you take a minute to listen to the meaning, find the application, and understand the language it was spoken in.
I pray that everyone who reads this (myself included) will be spurred on to read their Bibles with eyes wide open, that God would grant each of us a good memory to remember what we have already read, and wisdom to see the dots that need to be connected. That our desire to read the Bible would be sparked with a flame that consumes our thoughts and we would be purified by reading His Word and renewing our minds in the process. In Jesus name. God bless you all!
