Tag: Bible

Mothers Are a Gift from God

On By Jason SmithIn Devotional1 Comment

By Jason Smith

“Sweet Lullaby,” sculpture by Alice Heath.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. (Proverbs 31:31, NIV)

It’s pretty hard to overstate the importance a mother has in her child’s life. Our life journeys begin within our mother’s womb. Moms alone have literally been there from the beginning. The nurture and care flowing from a mother’s heart are irreplaceable. And the love a mother has for her children is simply beyond measure.

I am deeply grateful to God for my mother, Sandy Smith. There are so many times in life that I can look back and reflect on how essential my mother’s love, correction, and care proved to be. She has poured her heart and soul into my life in more ways than I can count.

I can say the same for my wife, Whitney, and the undeniable care she shows to our three boys. That same commitment to her children is also seen in my mother-in-law, Shirleen, and in countless other moms I have met.

Mothers are a gift from God.

Honor Your Mother

I’m thankful that our culture still celebrates Mother’s Day as a day to honor the women who have raised us and helped to mold us into the people we are today. Interestingly, Mother’s Day has only been a national holiday since 1914.[1] But God has been honoring mothers from the very beginning.

Honoring both parents is so essential that God included it in the big Ten Commandments He gave to Moses:

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12, NIV)

Perhaps one of the biggest ways you can honor your mother is through listening to her.

The logic works like this. She has lived longer than you. She’s been through more experiences than you. She was appointed by God to raise you. Without her, you wouldn’t have survived or become the person you are today. So, listen to her.

In the book of Proverbs, we read about the importance that both a father and a mother have in raising children.  

“Listen, my son, to your father's instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.” (Proverbs 1:8, BSB)

Again, the need to listen and cherish what both parents say is highlighted. In doing so, she can be joyful.

“Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old… Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.” (Proverbs 23:22, 25, NIV)

The same message is repeated over and over in Scripture: Your wise decisions lead to Mom being happy. And, as you can imagine, foolish decisions have the opposite result.

Thanks to postmodernism, our children today are being assaulted with a host of cultural lies about God, truth, morality, and history. In her excellent book, Mama Bear Apologetics, Hillary Morgan Ferrer writes about the essential role moms have in preparing their children for a world that is often very hostile to the Christian worldview:

“We need to prepare our children so they aren’t left unprotected for the future. The greatest protection we can give our kids is to equip them to face the cultural lies head-on while remaining gracious, loving, and winsome. It is not enough to simply tell them which ideas are raised against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). We must train them to understand why those ideas are flawed.”[2]

Cultivate a Contagious Love for God’s Word

For mothers, sound advice, careful discernment, and moral instruction are all certainly important. But for followers of the risen Lord, the greatest joy is seeing your children come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

On his second missionary journey, Paul befriended a young man named Timothy, who was apparently raised by both his Jewish mother and grandmother. His father was a Greek pagan, so it was left to the women who raised him to teach him the faith. Paul notes how important it was that Timothy learned to love the Bible at an early age.

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

Notice that phrase “knowing from whom you learned it.” So, who’s Paul referring to here? Who taught Timothy “the sacred writings” (the Bible)? If you flip back a page to chapter one, we get the answer. In his greeting to Timothy, Paul writes:

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” (2 Timothy 1:5)

Although it’s easy for us to read past this if we are reading through the whole letter, I think that it’s worth stopping to consider what Paul is saying here. In chapter 3, he’s telling Timothy to be on guard against false teachers, to rely on God’s Word, and to remember “from whom” he learned God’s Word. It’s significant because Paul can point to both Timothy’s grandma and mom to say, “This faith that you now have that will keep you on the straight and narrow and save you for eternity—this faith—is what you first learned from them.”

I think Paul is showing Timothy—and God is showing us through Paul—just how important a godly mother is. Here we have two generations of godly mothers highlighted and Paul can say, “Look at their lives. Look at how much they depended on God for everything. You want to know that God’s Word is trustworthy and can tremendously help you in life? Well, look at your grandma and mother—the two women who have had the biggest impact on your faith—and consider how God’s Word shaped them into the gracious, loving, hope-filled and pure people they are.”

The Inestimable Impact of a Godly Mother

If you are a mother, my prayer for you is that you would be so committed to reading God’s Word—and so, to knowing Jesus—that your faith would have a tremendous impact on your child’s life and shape how he or she views the God who made them.

The great Baptist preacher of the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon, wrote this after reflecting on the incredible impact his Bible-reading mother had on him:

“Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother. Certainly I have not the powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me.”[3]

In Acts 16:1, the author Luke mentions that Timothy’s mother was a believer. Here’s what John Piper said about this passage in a devotional I read recently:

“The apostle of Jesus Christ in this text bestows on motherhood and grandmotherhood a great honor. You have a calling that can become the long-remembered ground of faith, not just for your children — mark this — but for the untold numbers who will be affected by your children. And that’s in addition to all the other thousands of ripple effects of faith in your life.”[4]

Mothers, here’s the good news. Yes, you have an immense privilege and great responsibility in your calling as a mother. But, praise God, you don’t have to do this alone! You have Jesus, who is present with you and in you by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:20; 1 Cor. 6:19-20). You have the treasure trove of Scripture, which offers us both wisdom and grace to us every time we pick it up to read (2 Tim. 3:15-17; 2 Cor. 9:8; Col. 1:5-8; Eph. 5:26). You have a God who is both faithful and loving, despite our flaws and failures (Deut. 7:9; Rom. 3:3-4; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:13; Titus 1:2). And, by God’s grace, you have others in your life who, while imperfect, are committed to loving you, loving your child, and loving Jesus.

You have been given an incredible charge, and you are also given an endless supply of grace (James 4:6). And, if you ever find your faith faltering, remember to fix your eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:1-2) and to consider the promise that when we read His Word, our faith is strengthened. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

[1] Although it became a holiday in 1914 thanks to President Woodrow Wilson, it was actually originated with Anna Jarvis, who began holding annual memorial in 1908 to honor her mother specifically and every mother also for their love and support.

[2] Hillary Morgan Farrer, Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies.

[3] Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography.

[4] http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/her-children-arise-and-call-her-blessed

What Did Jesus Think of the Bible?

On By Jason SmithIn Theology for Life, Why I Believe2 Comments

By Jason Smith

It’s an intriguing question, isn’t it? Just what did the carpenter from Nazareth think of the writings that Christians today call “the Bible”?

It’s a question worth asking because today there are many self-identifying Christians who claim unswerving loyalty to the King of kings while taking a much more ambivalent approach to Scripture than Christians generally have throughout the last 2,000 years. Why is it, for instance, that there is a growing number of Christians who hesitate to even call the Bible “the Word of God”? Such progressive Christians will often express great love and admiration for the Bible, but they are less certain about its abiding authority for believers today.

Take, for example, what Rob Bell says about Scripture’s origin:

“The Bible is a library of books reflecting how human beings have understood the divine. People at that time believed the gods were with them when they went to war and killed everyone in the village. What you’re reading is someone’s perspective that reflects the time and the place they lived in. It’s not God’s perspective — it’s theirs. And when they say it’s God’s perspective, what they’re telling you is their perspective on God’s perspective. Don’t confuse the two.”[1]

The problem with this assertion is that the Bible is filled with claims that it is God’s perspective, not merely man’s perspective on God’s perspective.[2] For instance, the Apostle Paul seems to be alluding to compromises similar to Bell’s when he writes, 

“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, emphasis added).

Paul is crystal clear. The words he writes are the very words of God. They ultimately originate not with Paul, but with God. They are not primarily Paul’s perspective on God’s perspective (whatever that means), but God’s perspective written through the vantage point of a human author. While human authors were the means — and certainly they expressed their personalities and styles in their writing — what they wrote ultimately has a divine Author.

What Is at Stake

Theologian James White rightly observes,

“A solid view of the Bible begins with the recognition that God is its principle author, the origin and source of its very essence. All sub-Christian systems must, by definition, attack God’s Word at this very point, for the survival of their unbiblical teachings and views of authority is dependent upon overthrowing this precise truth.” [3]

Therefore, Scripture’s divine authorship is a truth that Christians cannot neglect, and the church must persistently and unapologetically teach it with unwavering confidence.

Is it possible that many Christians in the West are being deeply influenced by secularism without even realizing it? To claim that Scripture is not truly from God is to strip it of all authority. And that, my friend, is the point. After all, if the Bible doesn’t really have a divine origin, then it doesn’t have any say over how I live my life.

Let me be candid. To claim to follow Jesus while denying the Bible’s divine authority over your life is both a grave dishonor to the Lord and a tragic rejection of a precious gift we ought to cherish. But beyond this, how can anyone deny Scripture’s authority while claiming to love the very Jesus described in those pages?

Jesus’ View of the Bible

So, what did Jesus think of the Bible? Would Jesus have considered the Bible to be the very Word of God?

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read of a time when a group of religious leaders, known as Sadducees, attempted to trip Jesus up with a somewhat ridiculous scenario of a widow who consecutively married seven brothers, all of whom died soon after saying “I do.” (As an aside, shouldn’t we begin to suspect this widow of murder?)

Now, something you should know is that the Sadducees didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. They only considered the first five books of the Bible to be Scripture, and resurrection isn’t explicitly taught until later revelation. So they ask Jesus a “gotcha” question: “So tell us, Jesus, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her” (Matthew 22:28). Their aim was to make the resurrection look nonsensical. Jesus’ response is remarkable:

“You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:29-32 NASB, emphasis added).

Not only does Jesus demonstrate His belief in the absolute power and clarity of Scripture, but notice His question: “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God” (v. 31). According to Jesus, when we read from the pages of Scripture, the Creator God Himself is speaking to us. Consider the way Jesus frequently quotes Scripture with the preface “It is written.”[4] When settling a theological issue with the religious leaders, Jesus repeatedly asks, “Have you not read?”[5] Christ’s basic assumption is that if the so-called “experts” in the Law had only carefully read and submitted to the Law, they wouldn’t be mistaken. By appealing to Scripture in this way, Jesus was displaying His unyielding conviction that Scripture is the final word on the matter.

That’s because Jesus believed the Bible was the Word of God, and He had no problem calling it that.

For example, when the Pharisees and scribes confront Jesus and His disciples on their apparent disregard for the traditions of the elders (v. 2), Jesus turns the accusation around, calling these religious leaders to account for exalting their tradition while disregarding “the word of God.”

[Jesus] answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:3-6, emphasis added)

Notice how Jesus clearly affirms Scripture as the “commandment of God.” His point is not that human tradition is all bad. Rather, Jesus is confronting the fact that their reverence and esteem for merely human tradition has supplanted Scripture’s rightful place of authority in their lives. God had clearly taught the great importance of honoring one’s parents, but there was a tradition handed down by the ancient rabbis that essentially nullified this teaching and muted what God had clearly said on the matter. By clinging so tightly to man-made teachings they had “made void the word of God” (v. 6, cf. v.9). This is a serious charge, and it demonstrates Jesus’ view both on the origin of Scripture and its supreme authority on every area of human life.

But the Pharisees and scribes aren’t alone here. Jesus would have us recognize this tendency even in our own hearts to exalt the wisdom of mere humans and disregard the wisdom of God. It’s a symptom of the brokenness from which Jesus came to set us free.

“Your Word Is Truth”

God has been so very gracious to give us the Bible. He didn’t have to do that. How tragic it is when we sneer at it and claim it is filled with human error.

For example, the late progressive Christian Rachel Held Evans wrote,

“While Christians believe the Bible to be uniquely revelatory and authoritative to the faith, we have no reason to think its many authors were exempt from the mistakes, edits, rewrites, and dry spells of everyday creative work.”[6]

She so emphasizes the human side that she discounts the fact that “those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21, NLT).

Compare Evans’ claim that the Bible is marked by “mistakes, edits, rewrites and dry spells of everyday creative work” with Jesus’ claim that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Jesus told God the Father “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). When facing Satan’s temptations in the desert, Jesus counters by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written, ‘Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[7]

Not even once does Jesus express even the slightest doubt that every word we find in Scripture is spoken by God, and, therefore, without error. Jesus would no doubt affirm Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God proves true.” Kevin DeYoung has rightly concluded that “it is impossible to revere the Scriptures more deeply or affirm them more completely than Jesus did.”[8]

So this beckons the question: Do you share Jesus’ view of Scripture? Do you believe that what is written is “spoken by God” (Matthew 22:31)? Would you be willing to affirm that it is “the word of God” (Matthew 15:6). Do you believe those who wrote it “spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21), and thereby gave us an unbreakable “truth” (John 17:17)? Here’s my encouragement. If you consider yourself a Christian or follower of Jesus, you should want to see the Bible the way He saw it. God’s Word can give you the confidence to face each day and the certainty of what lies in store for you beyond the grave.

[1] Rob Bell, What Is the Bible? (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 295-296.

[2] 2 Timothy 3:16 calls all of Scripture theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.” 2 Peter 1:20 clearly says that Scripture does not come “from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Clearly, Scripture teaches that its origin, source, and wisdom begins not with humans, who are the active agents writing Scripture, but with God Himself who oversaw their environment, life, and activity, and carried them along in the writing process.

[3] James R. White, Scripture Alone (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2004), 50.

[4] See the previous footnote. For but a small sampling see Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24, 31; Mark 7:6; 9:12-13; 11:17; 14:21, 27; Luke 4:4, 8, 10; 7:27; 10:26; 18:31; 19:46; 20:17; 21:22; 22:37; 24:44, 46; John 6:45; 8:17; 10:34; 15:25.

[5] cf. Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31; Mark 2:25; 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3; 10:26.

[6] Rachel Held Evans, Inspired (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2018), xxiii. Evans fails to recognize that when Paul uses the word “inspired” (theopneustos in the original Greek) in 2 Timothy 3:16, he is calling the Scriptures themselves “God-breathed.” She re-imagines inspiration to mean something totally foreign to the original text. She writes, “Inspiration, on both the giving and receiving end, takes practice and patience. It means showing up when you don’t feel like it, even when it seems as if no one else is there. It means waiting for wind to stir.” I don’t know of any Christian throughout church history who would have agreed with her definition.

[7] The familiar Greek phrase γέγραπται, usually translated “It is written” or “Scripture has it,” is repeated over 90 times by Jesus and the New Testament authors to connote Scripture’s authoritative declaration on a matter.

[8] Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 109.

Photo credit: Lawrie Cate, Wikimedia Commons

God Creates by His Word

On By Jason SmithIn Devotional, Theology for LifeLeave a comment

By Jason Smith

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3)

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 had the unique privilege of becoming the first human beings to see the far side of the moon. Coming out of their fourth orbit, these astronauts — Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders — were mesmerized by the breathtaking view of earth, with all its beautiful and vibrant colors. It stood in stark contrast to the barren landscape of the moon in the foreground. In that captivating moment, the crew thought it was only fitting to read reverently from the majestic first verse in the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Thus begins the grand story of Scripture. How different this account is from all the ancient pagan creation myths. For example, the Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish, speaks of the gods warring with one another and finally forming the worlds out of the carcasses of slain gods. In contrast, this God of Genesis, Yahweh, does not need already existing matter to create His universe. There is no battle raging in Genesis 1. God simply speaks, and a vast universe stretches into existence.

That phrase “the heavens and the earth” is called a merism, where two ends of a spectrum are used to encompass the whole. In Genesis 1:1, we are meant to take “the heavens and the earth” as the entire cosmos being created by the one God. Modern science has now caught up to Genesis in recognizing that there had to have been an absolute beginning to the universe, but for many centuries the consensus among secular scientists was that the universe was eternal. In contrast, Christians and Orthodox Jews have always believed that only God is eternal.

“Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)

God Speaks and Things Happen

“And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light” (Genesis 1:3). God merely speaks and things burst into existence. This same basic pattern is followed throughout the whole first chapter (see verses 6-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 20-21, 24, 26-27). And what’s the point? I think Psalm 33 best captures this.

In Psalm 33:6, we read: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.” Verse 9: “For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.”

The whole point is that creation was instantaneous, just like the miracles of Jesus. Jesus did not need to take that water from the wedding in Cana, run to grab grapes from a local vineyard, press them down, and wait for the whole process of fermentation to be completed before He finally made wine. No, the whole point of this first “sign” was that Jesus transformed the water into wine in a moment (see John 2:1-11).

In the same way, God did not need long ages of stellar evolution before creating the first star.[1] Genesis offers no rhetorical flourish when describing the creation of those massive gas giants with all their incredible combustion. Almost as an afterthought, we read, “He also made the stars” (Genesis 1:16, NIV).

This instantaneous creation by His word displays God’s infinite creative power. All He has to do is exhale, as it were, and galaxies spin into space, whole worlds take shape, and all the various living creatures fill the earth. Just imagine how much power this Creator must wield!

Photo courtesy of DesktopBackground

God of Infinite Power

Yahweh is not like the gods of the ancient cultures, who needed humans to be their slaves because they were too tired.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
His understanding is unsearchable.” (Isaiah 40:28)

Nor did He need to kill other gods in order to form the worlds. It is simply the awesome power of Almighty God on full display. This is the God we were made to know and with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13).

You and I were made to bow down and worship such a God. And after considering His infinite power, this only makes sense.

“Worthy are You, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for You created all things,
and by Your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)

Wired for Glory

But more than that, we were created to know Him. This is the greatest privilege imaginable: to know the Creator. That is why we ought to consider what the Bible says about Him. For knowing God is the key to finding true and abundant life. From the beginning, humankind was designed to be in relationship with this infinite Creator. We are wired for glory. That is why we hunger for glorious experiences, achievements, and relationships. But everything else will ultimately leave us empty and unsatisfied until we come to know the One who authored our life.

“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Eternal life is found in repenting of sin against this Creator and trusting in Jesus Christ alone as Savior from that sin. I invite you to open your Bible and discover this awesome God for yourself.

[1] As an aside, the current theory of stellar evolution that is widely accepted in the secular academy is that stars are born from the elements produced by already existing stars. The problem for the atheist is how those first stars came to be. While the current theory among secular scientists is that the first stars formed from a collapsing cloud of gas, this theory has numerous problems. See Rod Bernitt, “Stellar Evolution and the Problem of First Stars,” https://creation.com/stellar-evolution-and-the-problem-of-the-first-stars. Even the agnostic astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has admitted: “Not all gas clouds in the Milky Way can form stars at all times. More often than not, the cloud is confused about what to do next. Actually, astrophysicists are the confused ones here. We know the cloud wants to collapse under its own weight to make one or more stars. But rotation as well as turbulent motion within the cloud work against that fate. So, too, does the ordinary gas pressure you learned about in high-school chemistry class. Galactic magnetic fields also fight collapse: they penetrate the cloud and latch onto any free-roaming charged particles contained therein, restricting the ways in which the cloud will respond to its self-gravity. The scary part is that if none of us knew in advance that stars exist, front line research would offer plenty of convincing reasons for why stars could never form.” Neil deGrasse Tyson, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007), 187.

Where Intimacy with God Is Forged

On By Jason SmithIn DevotionalLeave a comment

By Jason Smith

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Columbia Gorge

This last weekend, I stood atop Mount Defiance, a peak that overlooks the Columbia River Gorge. The view was breathtaking. Across the hills, pine forests comingled with the orange, yellow, and red of leaf-bearing trees turning their autumn hue. The broad river below shimmered under the bright sun that shone alone in the blue vault above. To the north stood the majestic peaks of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens. To the south, Mount Hood towered over the surrounding landscape. It was beautiful, and I thanked God for His work of art. One might wonder what could possibly move the heart to worship the Creator like such an experience outdoors. Psalm 119 provides an answer.

Psalm 119 is something of a love poem written about God’s Word, the Bible. We read statements like: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (v. 97). It gives us a sense of just how central Bible reading must be for the man or woman who desires to walk hand-in-hand with God on the journey of life. There is a powerful lesson here for the committed follower of Jesus. Our relationship with God is not primarily strengthened through nature hikes, where the grandeur of God’s creative power is on full display, or through reading the great works of clear-thinking theologians. It’s certainly true that staggering views of creation can ignite a sense of awe and worship that is God-directed. Similarly, soul-thrilling treasures can be mined from the writings of Augustine, Edwards, Spurgeon, and many more. And yet, above and beyond these, God has made it clear that it is the Bible alone that should occupy the central place in the believer’s relationship with God.

It is through reading Scripture that true intimacy with God is forged. It is God’s Word that moves our hearts to bring bold requests to our Maker in prayer. It is through studying the Bible that we are guided, not by vague notions of what a good God might want, but by clear enunciations of His will for every believer (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; 5:18; 1 Peter 2:25). It is the Bible — not creation — that tells us how we come into a relationship with God (2 Timothy 3:15). Every follower of Christ should reflect the attitude of the psalter in Psalm 119:35-40:

“Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.

Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared.

Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.

Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!”

From this passage, we learn that the Lord’s commandments are not burdensome; they are “good” (v. 39). In fact, they are a source of “delight” (v. 35). The implication of verses 36-38 is that when Scripture is not central to our lives and constantly redirecting our thoughts, we are prone to selfishness (v. 36), to “looking at worthless things” (v. 37), and to ignoring rather than fearing the God for whom we are made (v. 38). The words of Scripture are the words of life — apart from which we have no hope. Your Creator authored them, and they are intended for your good. As Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Prayer: Father God, I often feel the pull of temptation to all kinds of worthless pursuits. Please redirect my thoughts and attitudes by Your mighty Word. Like the psalter, fill me with an unhindered longing for the Spirit-inspired Word of God (Psalm 119:40)!

 

Photo credit: Marilee Janzen