Being Men of the Word

Overview

It never ceases to amaze me how God times the lessons He teaches us.  Within the last month I have finished reading "God Wrote a Book" by James MacDonald and thoroughly enjoyed eating up the truth in it.  Of course, there were points that I wasn't quite on board with, but it was a very God-honoring book.

Along with my daily time in His Word, this book was reminding me of how the Bible is truly the Word of God, the method that the God of all Creation chose to use to communicate to us.  How awesome is that?  When you think of the ways that man has to communicate with God, you've got your choice between prayer or the Word of God.  When you want to learn what God has to say, you're narrowed down to the Word of God.  This implies that the single source of knowing how to be more like Christ, to honor the Lord, and to have a fruitful life is all locked up in that single book known as The Bible.  Why wouldn't you want to read that book!?

Excuses

I am seeing God's sovereignty in teaching me this lesson as in the past week I've ran into more and more of my Christian brothers and sisters who are struggling to spend regular time in the Word.  This is such a travesty because this is such a foundational piece of our walk with Christ.  I've heard excuses all over the map about why they haven't been able to get regular time in the Word, but it ultimately comes down to a heart that doesn't value God's Word like it should.  I know that sounds rather blunt, but let's take an example and break it down:

Example A:

• What I say: "I don't have time"
• What I mean: "Other things are more important to me and come first.  By the time I do everything else I want to do, then it's too late or I'm too tired to read the Word."

It's rather short and there aren't many background details, but unless you absolutely have every minute of every day booked up (and I'm betting you don't), then this is probably a close depiction of your situation.

However, the example isn't really the point of this post.  I'm not trying to point fingers, what I want to do is help all of us understand our hearts better and have a proper view of the Word of God.

The word of GOD

I have seen time and time again how God's Word is the source of growth in my life.  When I'm in the Word, I'm learning more about God and how I'm called to respond to His sovereignty in my life.  When I'm not in the Word, I'm quicker to anger, usually drawing more and more inward on myself (being selfish), and just not handling life in a way that brings glory to God and ultimately doesn't provide joy.  To me, that is some significant proof of it's power in my life.

However, I realize that not everyone will say they've seen the same results from time in the Word, so they'll be tempted to say that this doesn't apply to them.  I want to challenge you to avoid that mistake.  Just because you aren't seeing fruit doesn't mean that you can abandon the Word.  God wants you to pursue Him out of a heart that desires Him.  He doesn't want just your "discipline", He wants your heart.  Perhaps you need to evaluate why you're reading the word.  Are you doing it simply because it's the good, Christian thing to do?  Has it become a discipline for you (that's a good thing), but your heart hasn't caught up yet (that's a bad thing)?  See Matt. 15:8 and think about it.

I also want to leave you with the following challenges:

• If you aren't reading God's Word, then what have you put in it's place?  Is it helping you grow?
• Do you really believe that the Bible is the spoken word of God given to us through Spirit-led men? 2 Tim. 3:16-17 --- How you answer this should impact how you view the daily task of spending time with God.
• What is stopping you from setting aside time every day to seek out the God of Creation? (Joshua 1:8)