For the Christian, God’s Word is our life-blood. Yet, even though it’s indispensable for our health and vitality, many of us find it difficult to engage with the Bible.
Strengthening Bible engagement. Why do so many of us struggle to connect with God’s Word? Why do we not do what we know we should do? We know the Scriptures are words of life. We know we find direction and comfort in its pages. And we know it’s potent and trans-formative. Yet we sometimes don’t engage with it and don’t always do what’s best for us.
Are you in a Bible engagement slump? Is the Spirit nudging you to engage more effectively? Here are five uncomplicated ways to strengthen your connections with the Bible:
Confession
Being in right-standing with God is crucial for Bible engagement. To connect with God’s Word you’ve got to remove hindrances. Possibly the biggest obstacle to engagement with God’s Word is un-confessed sin. Are you living your own way and denying God the right to rule your life? This is sin. To receive God’s Word you’ve got to “throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage” so that “our gardener, God,” can “landscape you with the Word” James 1:21 (MSG).
Accountability
Who do you answer to? One of the reasons why our Bible engagement sometimes comes to a grinding halt is because we’re not accountable to others. Bible engagement is always better when we do it together. We need Bible engagement buddies. “Two are better than one” Ecclesiastes 4:9. So find someone who will journey with you, and at least weekly, chat with you about your Bible reading and reflections. I find this happens best when we both use the same reading guide. No matter how you navigate the details of who and when, the goal is having a friend to help you up if you fall down (cf. Ecclesiastes 4:10).
Journaling
Effective Bible engagement requires note taking. When we put pen to paper it often jogs our hearts and minds in ways that form and transform us. Journaling doesn’t have to be all-embracing. Aim to capture the essence of your daily encounters with Jesus in His Word. How much or how little you journal isn’t important. Most of the time I jot down only one or two sentences. So it doesn’t have to be a detailed diary of everything you hear God saying to you. What is essential is that you do it.
Praying
Praying the Scriptures will revolutionise your engagement with God’s Word. Pray as you read and read as you pray. The two go together. Prayer comes alive when it’s infused with the Word and the Word comes alive when it’s accompanied by prayer. Are you prayers dry, lacking content, or the same old things you’ve always prayed? The Bible, while not a prayer book per se, provides the content for our prayers. As you read God’s Word use the words, phrases or themes of the passage to guide, shape, and give language to your conversations with God. This is done by praying a Scripture text word for word as your own prayer, by personalising a text, or by turning your thoughts and feelings about a topic or theme of a Scripture passage into prayer.
Obeying
Obeying God’s Word may seem like a foregone conclusion, but most of the time we don’t act on what we know. Transformation, not information, is the aim of Bible engagement. When we obey God’s Word it comes alive to us and we come alive to it! Bible engagement is more than talking, it’s acting. But, we often get sidetracked from doing it, don’t we? So every time we read God’s Word we must intentionally ask ourselves, “What does God want me to do with His Word today?” And then, we must ask Him to help us do what He’s directing us to do.
There you have it. Don’t be backward in coming forward! Implement these five simple tweaks, trust the Lord, do nothing in your own strength, and see your Bible engagement reach new heights.
© Scripture Union Canada 2019