My
one-year-old daughter plays with basically the same toys every day. She moves
from stuffed animals to books to puzzles to balls and back again all day long
unless she is eating or sleeping or we’re out of the house. And yet, every
morning when she toddles into the living room to find the same doll, the same
wooden fruit, the same finger puppets that she’s played with a hundred times
before, her eyes get wide, she opens her mouth in a grin, and she exclaims with
delight. It doesn’t matter how many times she’s seen them before; she greets
them with the excitement of both a first encounter and a longed-awaited reunion
all in one.
As I was
watching her expressions of joy one morning, it hit me: isn’t this how we
should be with the Word of God, fully delighting in each opportunity to meet
its pages? And yet so often it’s not. Perhaps we’ve read the Bible in its
entirety countless times. Straight through, chronologically, or mixing it up
with a combination of Old and New Testament sections each day, we’ve read the
passages over and over again on top of hearing sermons preached about them, listening
to Bible study lessons taught on them, and reading books referencing them. With
such repeated exposure, it can be easy to tune out, gloss over, or miss the
wonder that is God’s written Word. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
With the
Psalmist, we can say, “Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the
day!” (Psalm 119:97, ESV). We can find delight in the pages of Scripture, as
mentioned on repeat in Psalm 119 (vv. 14, 16, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 143, 174). We
can find fresh wonder and fresh joy each time we return to the familiar words,
because they are not just any words—they are the very words of the living God
written specifically to communicate with us and draw us into relationship with
Himself. And for those who follow Jesus, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have
the very Author of the Bible inside of us to help us understand what we read
and guide us into all truth (John 14:26, 16:13).
And yet, despite
all this, we still too often fail to appreciate the depths of the magnificence
that is the Bible. We find ourselves becoming bored with what we think are just
outdated laws and stories instead of recognizing the Bible as the cohesive,
dramatic account of the grand saga of the universe in which we play a role.
This posture toward Scripture is not overly surprising, though. We are not in
our fully redeemed state, after all; our weaknesses still abound.
But too
often we allow ourselves to become content operating out of our weakness
instead of from the strength that is ours in Christ Jesus. We let guilt and
shame over our sin keep us from approaching the threshold of God’s revealed
message of grace and mercy to us. We read the Bible without asking the Holy
Spirit to illuminate its words to our minds and hearts. We tell ourselves that
there’s nothing there we haven’t read or heard a thousand times before instead
of coming expectantly to the living words that never return void, knowing that they
will be effective in accomplishing God’s purpose in our lives (Isaiah 55:10-11).
We treat the Bible as we would any other book instead of recognizing that God
can and does use it to speak to us directly, not only about His grand plan for
salvation but also regarding any number of situations particular to our
personal circumstances.
But oh, how
beautiful it would be if we cast aside our shame and guilt and ran to the pages
of God’s love letter to us. How enlightening our time in the Word would be if
we began each reading with a sincere request to the Holy Spirit to give us
understanding and make us more like Christ, even if that means being diligent
to press through difficult passages not knowing how or when the deposit of
planting God’s Word in our minds will reveal its reward? How formative it would
be if we read humbly and expectantly, alert to whatever God is wanting to teach
us? How refreshing it would be if we found fresh joy, fresh wonder in each pass
through the pages of Scripture.
With the
Lord’s help and in His power, may we become people who greet the Bible like my
daughter greets her toys—with pure delight in its goodness, excitement over the
potential it holds, and wonder at the beautiful truth that it’s for us to have
and to hold, in our hands and in our hearts.
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