To get or to receive

Many people avoid reading certain books of the Bible because they don’t expect to “get much out of it”. Most of us would rather read a Gospel or an Epistle than Leviticus.

I think the main reason for this is how we view our Bible reading. We try to “maximize” our time in the Word by reading only those books which we feel are rich with application. We have needs and we want God to speak to them, so we open our Bible to the pages where He has spoken to us before, and to where we believe He is most likely to speak to us again.

I would propose a different approach, one based on looking to receive whatever God would give us through His Word, as opposed to one focused on our attempts to make sure we “get something” out of our Bible reading.

Our family has seen much fruit these past few months from a systematic reading through the Bible. We started with the Old Testament, which initially seemed counter-intuitive in light of the fact that we have several young children. But God’s Word never returns void.

We don’t always get what we are looking for on a given day, but we are daily surprised by what we receive from the Lord. He knows what we need better than we do ourselves.

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

Comments

  1. Oh, amen! I am always amazed by how God “doubles up” what He’s speaking to us – a particular point may seem to “leap out” of a seemingly unrelated current passage, and then (as is the case here), he drives the point home through the words of another. He is so good!!

  2. I so much agree with what you are saying. My husband and I work with teenagers who would rather just focus on the passages where Jesus is loving and forgiving toward the sinners, rather than where God pours out wrath and judgement to the sinners.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog. The CD that we have been listening to on Rhapsody is The Shorter Catechism Volume 1 by Bruce Benedict. I am guessing that since it says Volume 1 he as others or plans to record other volumes. So far the only one Rhapsody has is Volume 1. So it only goes to question 38. Holly Dutton has a set of four CDs available from Veritas Press that cover all the songs from the Shorter Catechism.

Speak Your Mind

*