DOES YOUR BIBLE READ YOU?

by Jacqueline Grey

At the 2021 ACC National Conference, Pastor Alun Davies preached a message that has stuck in my head. He said this: 'It breaks my heart when I hear of someone who has done something and now can no longer be in ministry… Every time I would ask a simple question: When is the last time you can remember opening up the Word of God and feeling His presence?' A common response was, 'I can’t remember'. We know in theory the importance of daily reading of the Word. Yet too often it becomes just another task in our busy schedules. Tick. Done.

Our days are constantly filled with activities and noise. So often our work for God fills our attention, so time with God is merely the means of energy to carry on our works.

Sure, we need to read the Bible. But we also need to let the Bible read us.

It is not easy to make time to sit still and give our attention to reading God’s Word. It’s even harder to hear the still, small voice of God amid all the distractions.

Psalm 37: 4-7 says: “Keep company with God… Open up before God keep nothing back… Quiet down before God, be prayerful before Him” (MSG).

As we quieten ourselves and sit, with an open heart and open Bible, we pray to be drawn into the life of God (John 17:22-23). We slowly become attentive to God’s presence. We sense God’s self-giving love.

Keeping company with God shifts our focus. We gain the courage to say not 'my' ministry but 'Your' will. We discover that God does not want our compulsive service, but our wonder.

Then we find that the Bible reads us. It penetrates our hearts. What we discover is not always what we expect. We are confronted with our own anxieties and fears. Our ambitions are exposed. We realise our lives are small.

Keep nothing back from God. God works to transform our selfish desires. Like at creation, the Spirit broods over the barren places in our lives. Then God speaks His Light and Life to begin filling those empty spaces. Like Isaiah 6, when the prophet saw the vision of the Heavenly king, we trade our self-importance for humble awe and surrender to God.

Our misplaced self-confidence becomes swapped for perfect confidence in God.

“God made my life complete, when I placed all the pieces before Him” (Psalm 18:20 MSG).

JACQUELINE GREY is Professor of Biblical Studies at Alphacrucis.