Legalistic or Healthy Conversation?

September 14, 2009 at 9:41 am (Uncategorized)

Over time I’ve developed a habit.  This habit isn’t a bad thing like smoking or watching too much TV.  My habit is to read from the Bible each day.  In fact, some would call this habit a spiritual discipline.  But this isn’t about my having discipline or not, but rather if having a discipline like reading the Bible is a legalism, or a humanistic spiritual effort.  As I work with the students I’m finding that it is the rare guy or girl who actually reads the Bible outside of regular church programs.  No wonder we have to make such a big deal about helping everyone find where we read in the Bible at church.  Most people don’t read and thus the Bible is a foreign book to them.  And that is an absolute shame.

When I read the Bible in the mornings, I try hard to hear from God, but often it is just plain, hard work to even find one nugget of truth from the Lord.  I’m sure others feel this way too.  To find insights and convicting challenges and just plain hearing from the Lord takes time to immerse in the Word and allow the message to penetrate our lives.  In this sense, our reading the Word is God’s way of talking to us.  Just like I often will have conversations with my wife while watching TV, I can miss whole thoughts and non-verbal messages she gives me because I’m not focused on the conversation.  I think the Lord sees us the same way.

We can read a passage but we forget God will often bring those truths to mind in the future when we are in a conversation or thinking through a big life challenge.  This is the healthy conversation that God gives us when we need that truth the most.  By daily getting into the Word, the storehouse of conversations grows and the true payoff is in the days and months to come.  By staying faithful to daily immersing in God’s truth, I find that the Holy Spirit brings ideas to mind when I least expect them and often these ideas are based on what I recently read.

So what is the bottom line?  Do we legalistically read or do we change our mindset and see anytime that we read, we are actually conversing with God?  As a Dad and a model to hundreds of students, my hope is that my daily conversations with God will transform me.  Who knows, maybe that’s why God wanted us to seek Him with all our heart.  Because it’s in the seeking that we find more than we ever bargained for.

Pastor Mark