I love the Bible. Sometimes I struggle to be disciplined to read it regularly, but I am never disappointed when I do.
It feeds me, corrects me, encourages me, challenges me, humbles me, changes me and brings me into closer fellowship with God – that is, when I come prayerfully to my reading with the desire of real fellowship with God. Sometimes I just check it off my list, but that is my loss because God is, in a sense, accessible to us through his word. He draws near to speak into our lives and to have fellowship with us when we draw near to him in his word.
When I rush through it and my motive is not fellowship but accomplishment, then I rob myself of life. It was Jesus who said: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40).
Sometimes I forget to do more than just read. I need to come to him and know him and listen to him and when I don’t I miss out on “life.” My bad. Because this is what I want more than anything else: I want a new life.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not at all unhappy with my wife, my children or my job. I am grateful to God for them all – they’re “keepers.” But the message of the Gospel contains the promise of a new life. It promises a new creation, an abundant life and the power to live a life that is pleasing to God. I want this very much. And I do not think that we will ever experience more in the Christian life until we want it very much.