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A gift of God to every Believer is a heart that actually desires Him. Being a part of a church body is where we can fully express that desire, learn, grow, and worship with others. However, if this is the only time we connect with God, WHO then are we actually following? The time we spend with God in prayer and personal Bible study is critical to who we are as His followers.
If you would for a second...think about it this way: You have a cell phone, right? What do you think we should value more, getting a text directly from our Creator and Savior, or hearing everyone around us always talking about the text message He sent to them...??? You know what I'm saying? Even if the people in our life talked about their "text from God" - and let us read what He said to them, it's just not the same. It's not the intimacy we crave.
Why do we let ANYTHING keep us from the Text of God? God wrote to us so that we could know HIM. In fact we were created not only hear God's text, know it and receive it with a willing heart, we were created to REFLECT the message of God and bring Him glory as we live it! Doesn't that just make you want to POUND something??? Pound your heart, my friend! That is the SPIRIT of GOD in you!
When Howard Hendricks, a long time professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, (who also served as the Dallas Cowboys chaplain from 1976 to 1984) spoke about personal Bible study, he put it simply, "There is no jewel more precious than the one which you have mined yourself." I love that! I totally get that. I grew up hearing the Bible. I did not study it for myself. When my life fell apart - that's when I ran to God on my own. And I need to be clear here. When I say I ran to God - I do not mean that I went back to church. I'd been "doing" church. I ran to God in His Word, to study it and hear His "Voice" speak to the junk stored up in my heart and mind that had led my decision making up until this point. The PERSONAL pursuit of God in His Word - THIS - is what CHANGED everything.
We went on a vacation to Myrtle Beach last July. Every day I would walk that beach in search of little treasures. I can't help but be amazed at the ocean and what she brings to the shore for us to see God's glory in her. I found so many beautiful shells and creatures, but the most amazing thing to me was the shark's tooth. WHAT a treasure! That I could find a tiny tooth in the midst of so much sand and all the tide-washed shells was so magnificent to me. I could not wait to show my son who is fascinated by sharks.
He was thrilled of course, but you know what? Even though I gave it to him - he was not satisfied. He HAD to find his own shark's tooth. And he did not want to stop until he did. There's just something exhilarating about the hunt, the adventure that brought you to a jewel that is forever yours, something entirely heart, soul, mind and body - GRATIFYING. It is the SAME with personal Bible study...only so much BETTER! God, Himself, leads you, and the jewel you find is eternal. The fortune that it holds can never be lost, or taken from you - ever.
I'm so grateful for the dry, thirsty place in my life that made me learn to seek Living Water. I'm grateful for the daily hunt that is new every morning, and that studying His Word never leaves me feeling self-sufficient, but ENTIRELY dependent on my God, moment by need filled moment. And I am so grateful that He is faithful to equip all of us so personally with His sufficiency for the day - by Every Word He Has Spoken.
My hope is to encourage you. If you are coming and going from church, Sunday after Sunday - being stirred - and yet STILL feeling like a BIG FAT FAKE. Feeling like: when is the pastor's passion ever going to be yours - because you still don't get it....And yet you get Jesus - and God - and that you NEED a relationship to the Father through His Son - but you still feel lost because - WHAT IS THAT??? Cuz maybe even being in a church small group, serving in Sunday school, giving your time and money to God in any way you find is needed - but STILL - you are sculpting out of deeds - that become monotony - the image of what is SUPPOSED to be a follower of Christ -and still feeling like a misfit at the end of the day...who just might not be able to get up and do it one. more. time. If that's you - OH MY SOUL! that was ME! ME! ME! Can I show you something that just shakes my heart to this day? John 1: 1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the WORD was GOD." His Word...His WORD - is Him. I have spent years looking for Him in people and places and circumstances and a boat load of other STUFF - and I have missed Him because I did not know Him. His Word is Him. Once I started feeding myself His Word every day - my eyes were opened to Him in people, in places and circumstances and a boat load of other STUFF - from my PAST - to present day. His Word. His Word. His Word...He is His Word. You won't miss Him. You won't.
And if you say, "I've read the Bible." Yeah. I've got that experience in my life, too. There's reading it - and then there's studying it. To study it - is to KNOW it. Remember those days of studying to KNOW something? Be it your career - your significant other - the directions for your phone???...Study God's Word - to know HIM. Get a good study Bible - with concordance and all...with cross references...with maps. GET a good one. You got a decent phone right? Get a good Bible. I love my NIV Zondervan study Bible. I love my NAS Ryrie study Bible. There are so many to choose from...you get to PICK ONE or two, or three.
Then, schedule study time into your day. For me - it's first thing in the a.m. EVERY DAY. I can't live without food and water in my flesh, so as a child of God I most certainly cannot live without SPIRIT food prepared my Father. That's good cookin'!
My other suggestion is a journal or a notebook where you can keep track of what you are reading and learning. If I didn't write it down - I'd forget what I read, what course God took me through to get to a TRUTH that blew my mind. I write it down as a legacy of my faith journey - not for people to read necessarily, but for my own personal accountability - my own personal life in Christ to refer back to and see the hand of God in my life.
And lastly I would encourage you to spend time in prayer before you study. What is on my heart and mind is often the STUFF pile from where God teaches me - corrects me - and redefines who I am in Him. AND then there are sometimes when what is on my heart and mind is a distraction that needs to be set down before God. SO I pray. I ask God to open my eyes to His Word - and make me get it - REALLY GET IT. "Open my eyes that I might see wonderful things from your law." Psalm 119:18. This is a request that is most definitely God's will for us. He'll do it. I promise, because He PROMISED first. "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13...Remember HE is His Word. Look for Him there.
I'm a freak about God's Word. I can't help it - and it is my JOY to share that ZEAL with you. Treasure is certain, my friend. What are you waiting for?
"I will never forget your precepts for by them you have preserved my life." Psalm 119:93
