Cultivating a Love for God's Word

One of my favorite videos is of a Papua New Guinea village celebrating the delivery of their first printed Scripture. I cannot watch this story without coming near to tears (click here to see it).

You can feel the welling emotion as the pastor takes the bundle of New Testaments into his arms and cradles it like a baby and prays loudly and enthusiastically, thanking God for giving His Word to the people of his village.

That kind of response to the first Bible in our language is foreign to English-speaking Christians. For hundreds of years, the Bible has been such a fixture in our way of life (think Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms) that we don’t realize what a gift we have in the English Bible.

Yes, it is true. We English-speaking Christians are sitting on an embarrassment of riches in our access to the Bible in our native tongue.

When I see that pastor praying so fervently and gratefully, it makes me want to cultivate a life-long love of Scripture.

But how?

Bible-reading can be difficult. Not everyone loves to read, and the Bible can be an intimidating book.

So this week I want to make a simple suggestion about how to get started with the vital habit of regularly engaging with and reflecting on Scripture.
 
Did you notice how I put that? I didn’t say anything about “reading” or “studying” the Bible. I used two specific phrases: “engaging with” and “reflecting on” the Scripture.

The method I use to engage with God’s Word is not the issue, and there’s no need for anyone to feel guilty if they have a hard time reading the Bible because they don’t like to read.

And it’s certainly not “cheating” to engage with Scripture by listening to it; in the history of the church, God’s people have been hearing God’s Word for far longer than they have been reading and studying it.

The point is not what method I use to engage with Scripture; the point is that I am encountering Scripture and reflecting on it intentionally and regularly.
 
Here’s what that that kind of intentional, regular, and reflective engagement looks like.

Because I love God, His Word has a prominent place in my habits and my schedule:

· I listen carefully and prayerfully as God’s Word is preached each week in corporate worship.

· I find opportunities to study and discuss the Scripture with a small group or class. (Because of the pandemic, these        opportunities are limited now, but as conditions improve, they will open up again, and we should seize those opportunities to engage with Scripture in community with other believers.)

· And I engage with Scripture “offline,” on my own, and here again the options are various:

o I can study a paragraph at a time in depth (my favorite method).

o I can read through several chapters at a time (many Bible reading plans are built this way).

o I can listen while I drive or jog (ironic that the digital age would return us to the method of engagement that most of our forefathers used: hearing God’s Word read aloud).

o I can pray through the Scripture (again, a favorite that I like to use with guys I’m discipling; we close our time reading a few verses at a time, then responding to God in prayer about what we read).

Then what I do next, what I think about when my Bible isn’t open in front of me, is also vital. I reflect on what I’ve read, pray about it, ask God to help me understand it and see how I can love Him and obey Him more fully.

My favorite method of reflection is journaling, but here again, the method isn’t as important as the act itself: thinking deeply about what I’ve read in God’s Word.
 
Habits have a way of gathering momentum and then impacting our lives over time. If I make a habit of delving into Scripture this way, it will begin to change me.

As I leverage the power of habit by making Scripture engagement a regular part of my daily and weekly schedule, I will begin to see the cumulative effects. I will begin to see how God’s Word can shape my outlook, my mental habits, my ambitions, my relationships. In short, it is by consistently engaging with Scripture that I see more clearly its beauty and its importance in shaping the desires of my heart.
 
I fear that we English-speaking Christians in North America someday are going to be like the man in the story I heard once.

A man was traveling alone by foot one night between villages. As he crossed a dry creek bed, he heard a voice tell him to pick up some of the pebbles from the creek bed, and he would be both happy and sad the next day.

He leaned down and scooped up a few pebbles, put them in his pocket and went on his way.

The next day he pulled out the pebbles to look at them, and he was both happy and sad because the pebbles were valuable gemstones.

He was happy that he had listened to the voice, but he was sad that he had not picked up more of them.
 
I don’t us to be the people who failed to recognize the opportunity that has always been so close at hand in our Bibles. I want us to seize on the opportunity to scoop up the treasure that is lying readily to hand.

For myself, for my family, for our congregation, I want us to do all we can to cultivate a life-long love for God’s Word.

Persevere.
Paul Pyle
Discipleship Pastor

Subscribe to receive Discipleship Weekly in your email each week.