Encountering the Lord in the Word

A couple of years ago for the first time, I read through the Bible in a one year reading plan. Though I had read the whole Bible before, I had never done it in a year or in a chronological plan. I dove in with excitement and determination to get it all done and hopefully to grasp more of God’s character and purposes. Even when I hit Leviticus, I was so surprised that the Lord could unveil more than I had ever noticed before. The Lord was using the time of quarantine to take me to a deeper depth with Him in the Word. I began to notice that along the way the Lord was teaching me to read differently than I had ever done before. I was less concerned with knowing ABOUT God and much more concerned with actually getting to KNOW HIM through the Word. That got me thinking about how we Western American Christians talk about studying our Bibles. 

Did you know that the Merrium Webster dictionary defines the word ‘study’ as “the application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of knowledge?” That sounds very academic and not very relational! We often come to the Bible with this word ‘study’ in mind, looking to acquire knowledge without going beyond and letting the Word penetrate and capture our imaginations in such a way that our hearts are caught up in a love affair with the Lord. Truly, I want to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with good study. We need to dig in, gather knowledge, and understand context, time, place, and the original purpose for what we read in the Word. I am not in dispute with some good study. I am not even in dispute with just basic straight up reading. But here is my dispute, my big BUT, scripture rarely uses the word ‘study’ when it offers up how we are meant to handle the Word of God. Psalm 119 is the most profound passage of Scripture, about Scripture, and yet there is not one mention of the word ‘study’ in all its 176 verses. Instead, it uses phrases like meditate on, love, that we are to crave the Word, and be faithful to it. There are prayers to see it clearly, cling to it, and celebrate it. Psalm 119 also goes on to say things like, Your Word revives me, instructs me, and the author prays for help to keep the Word and obey it. The New Testament ‘go to’ passages are no different 2 Tim 3:16-17 ‘All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.(ESV) Or look at Hebrews 4:12-13, “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from HIS sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of HIM to whom we must give account.” (ESV - emphasis mine) So DOES study fit into all of this? Yes … but I don’t believe it is meant to be our main approach to scripture. Instead, scripture should be our main gateway into encountering our good God. 

When we give our lives to Jesus, He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to take up residence in us. The Holy Spirit then not only seals our salvation, but He also lives within us to guide, teach, and comfort us. In John 16:13 it even says that the Holy Spirit is given to us to guide us into all truth and will reveal to us what Jesus has said directly to Him (paraphrase from ESV). This same Holy Spirit then is meant to help illuminate the Word to us, He is to be our main teacher in the Word, so that we might know the heart of Jesus. The scripture then is the location where we meet with God by engaging with His living and active words, along with the Spirit, who lights them up for us to see the deepest intentions of our hearts and great and wide heart of God. This is where we tune into His thoughts, His heart’s desire, His will, and what is pleasing to Him. We are meant to meet Him there to get to know Him, and have our hearts and minds awakened by the voice of the Spirit! Though it's OK that we want to gain knowledge - and again all of that is good - if our study never leads us into RELATIONSHIP - then we are using it for another purpose. In this we need to ask the Spirit to help us examine our motives when we approach His Word. In John 5:39, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”(ESV) Let’s turn away from the way of the Pharisee! We can all definitely get stuck there at times. Repent and be refreshed! 

Do we come to listen to the voice of the Spirit through the Word to tell our hearts what we need to know right here, right now? Do we come with that expectancy of the ongoing need for repentance in our lives as we give over new areas of our hearts and minds that we didn’t even know we had not released to Him? Are we coming into the Word with the idea that He wants to reveal Himself to us? That He might just want to spend time with us? Or that He might want to shower us with love, affection, or encouragement? Jesus wants us to find life in Him when we meet Him in the Word! We need to meditate on the word … chew on it over and over again asking the Spirit to illuminate it to your heart. We need to love the Word. Do you crave the Word, with a ‘can’t wait’ feeling for the next time you get to taste it and see His goodness in new ways? Do you cling to the Word as if it is life itself and should influence and dictate how you live? Are you letting it transform you so that you are pleasing the Lord rather than just yourself? The Word should be a beautiful place to meet with the God of the Universe, where tiny-you, gets to meet with Massive-Him and hear what He wants to speak to your heart. Don’t let it be just an exercise but let it be an invitation to be with Him. If all we ever do is study ABOUT God … then we will never truly hear Him speaking directly to us while we are in His Word. We will just have more information instead of relationship. Knowing ABOUT God is good - but ACTUALLY KNOWING God is a million times better. And that is exactly what the Word is for.