Looking for the Lord
How do we read the Bible to learn more about our Savior?
Good morning, friends! For this month’s devotion, I thought I’d share something I’ve been challenged with recently and expand on how this can affect our lives!
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an interesting phrase during a book study. It definitely made me pause for a moment, but it wasn’t until the next day when I heard the exact same thing on the You Version Bible app devotion that I really stopped to think about it and allow it to change my perspective. When I really paused to let the words sink in, I was in awe. The last couple of weeks, my time in the Word has felt so much deeper as I’ve tried to apply this concept that had me so amazed.
Now okay, enough of the suspense. I know you’re wondering what in the world this simple sentence could’ve been to have me so intrigued and inspired. Well, I hope you’re ready for it, because I’m about to drop it right here, in my own words of course.
What if we read the Bible to learn more about God and less about ourselves?
Read that over a couple of times. It took me over 24 hours for it to really sink in and a few weeks later, I’m still trying to process and put this into practice.
It may seem simple at first. The Bible IS about God, right, so wouldn’t we read it and naturally learn about Him? Yes. We do. But I know in my case, I tend to read a passage and ask, “what does this mean for me?” Just in my last devotion, Chosen by the King, I ended with how we could apply the knowledge learned from the passages used to our lives.
This is by no means a WRONG thing to do- we are designed to walk like Christ and what better way to do so then study the commandments He left? But the Bible is SO much more than this, and when we focus on seeing ourselves in the story instead of God, it’s a narrow-minded view and leaves us in search of more.
So read the Bible with an attitude of selflessness and desire to learn about our Creator. Easy, right? Not so simple.
As humans, we are self-centered and imperfect. Natural instinct is to look for and seek ourselves in everything we do. Those of us who follow Christ should strive to break this habit and instead serve God through serving others, seeking the Word to lead us and shape us in our actions.
And now I seem like I’m contradicting myself, right? If we are to read the Bible to learn about God, then how do we read it to shape our actions?
Well friends, it’s not an either-or situation here. When we dig into a passage, focusing first on discovering more about the Father, this leads naturally to realizations of how we can improve to be more like Him. We are to walk like Jesus walked…how can we do this unless we know more about Him?
So, you see, it’s all connected! Reading the Bible to observe more about our loving, gracious God deepens our relationship with Him and reveals to us His attributes. These attributes then, we can search for in our own life and ask ourselves how we can better live in a way that mirrors Christ.
This selfless mindset is just another way we can put God first in our lives. It can be hard to interpret at times, and not all passages lend themselves easily to this concept. Sometimes, we read what is very blatantly a command that we are to follow, and it’s hard to see what we can learn about God from a single verse telling us to do this, or not do that. Yet, digging deeper, we can see God’s heart in each of His commands…when He tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, we know we are to do this to be more like Him. And what does the Bible tell is God is? God is love!(1 John 1:8).
So, you see, it’s a circular pattern reflected throughout the Bible, hard to track at times, but a challenge I hope and pray YOU dear reader, are inspired to embark on today!
Reading the Bible with a focus on God and not on ourselves is truly a gratifying experience. In my own life, it has not only given me a specific goal for each time I open the Word but has drawn me closer to my Savior and impacted the way I view each verse.
So put on this mindset today. Ask, “what does this tell me about God?” Instead of “What does this say about my life?” and see how it all connects from there!
I pray you have been blessed by this week’s post, and I’ll see y’all in a few weeks!
-LeaRose