Worth Words - Week 31

Last week I wrote that I believe God’s Word is partially instilled on my heart and that I am nowhere near to the closeness I want with our Creator. I cited several verses from Romans and ended in pursuit of Galatians. Heavily the Word was on my heart as I took notice of what I already knew to be true. The Scriptures are living, breathing, and active! The mystery that lies in the pages of our history can certainly be hard to explain, but I dare to venture into the ways they changes people. The way they comfort and cleanse. The way they teach and correct. The way they allow you to follow intention of creation and most of all, how they tell us about our Father and Lord.

I don’t think the Scriptures can give us all the facts about God we’re looking for, but they do bring insight and wonderful ponderings. I don’t think they can give us all the answers to the deepest questions of life, but I do think there’s meaning of life found in them, and I do think they bring life. In reading the Word I have come to know the Creator of everything, the Messiah, and His Spirit. I have found Truth in the unbelief of my youth and have witnessed their power time and time again. Reading all 66 books of the Bible twice now, at different ages, I can feel the difference in my understanding. I know that as I read them over and over I will find new realities and new information about God that my heart unknowingly seeks to learn.

As mentioned weeks into this project, I don’t always feel like reading the Scriptures. Sometimes it even feels like a chore. They can appear tedious and redundant, questionable and disagreeing, but the longer I’m away from them, the harder my struggle becomes. My life, without His Word, hardens my heart and dims the clarity of my view. Their absence leaves room for filling my time with other information that can cloud thoughts and shape my mind. I’m being refined because God is refining me. I’m growing because He is sharing with me. Not only through His natural revelation and the way He allows His world to speak, but also (more so) through the pages of His special revelation that He’s given us in His Word.

Some may argue that the Scriptures have been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, until we learned to write and document our expansion. Those same people will say that the Scriptures were then translated over a dozen times and formatted to the liking of men without proper authority or evidence to support their claims. However, the further we get in science and the longer you read these Truths, the more intelligible they become. The more factual we realize they are and the more disclosure they seem to provide. It’s like a vicious circle.

We read about the beginning of time, how we as a people were so close to God, in His garden, walking with Him. When we turned our head just for a second, took our eyes off the beauty He is, we found ourselves lost to search for the connection we once had, hiding in fear from our own abandonment. Sought after and welcomed, we again walked closely with God. He guided us from the terrors we created and rescued us from our own decisions. Then, just when we could be safe in His graces, we again turned from His love and shaped our own god, of our own belongings, and gave praise to our own mortality. Softly correcting the error of our ways, God patiently waited for His people to cry out, redeeming us while it seemed impossible to fathom. Redundantly we can see this happen throughout history, and forgive me for saying I think were in that midst once more.

            Luckily, in that midst God prevails a victor. He does not leave His children to wander in the desert without Him. He mercifully provides everything we need to survive in our chaos and unfailingly allows us to return to the love He willing gives. The love that is Him and the love that we find in His word.

I know we can take hearsays or opinions and hold them as truth or we can look into what the enemy says and find ways to prove him wrong. In part, defending the Gospel is a call for all believers, but when the Word speaks for itself, it really needs no defense. I encourage you all to read the Word daily, something I wish I’d adhere to myself.

I’ve made point this past week to pick up an actual Bible, not on my phone or in cyberspace (though those are good too), and sit with Him in His conversation, reading what He has to say. At first I was rushing, still later I was skipping, but not long into it, I wanted more. Five minutes a day. 10 minutes a week. Whatever you’re able, I ask that you do. You will not be disappointed in the follow through and you will not regret the information learned. Even if to support your disregard, I recommend completion of the Scriptures before they’re altogether dismissed. Then, if you’ve read them before and still stand with nonbelief, read them again. You never know what some time will bring.

I believe, not that I always did, the Scriptures to be the inspired words of God. I believe that He gave them to the chosen and that His Spirit allowed them to be carried over the many generations that have come to pass. I believe that God has given us the gift of His Word and trust in the Truth of, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) I pray for us all in His Word and the name of Jesus. Amen!