Passively Resisting God’s Blessings
One of many best challenges we face as Christians is attempting to know why we passively resist the numerous blessings of God. For instance, we all know that prayer is nice and proper, however we don’t wish to do it. On this case, we entertain proper ideas about prayer, however our hearts usually lag behind these ideas. In different instances, the issue may very well be the best way we’re occupied with issues. It’s not a lot that we’re considering wrongly, however we could also be considering incompletely. I believe it is a key downside we face when encountering Scripture. We imagine that it’s fact and revelation and authority and supply (and so forth), however these prevailing ideas about it don’t generate the type of ardour for it that we all know is suitable.
I’ve turn out to be more and more satisfied that a few of our resistance to the Bible is rooted in our failure to actually see it for what it’s basically: a present. As a result of it comes from God, we undoubtedly really feel obligated to it. However can we view Scripture as grace from God, a present given for our earthly and everlasting happiness? What we understand we’re receiving from God in Scripture can actually form how we really feel about studying and submitting to it.
Good God, Good Phrase
The psalmist writes of God, “You might be good and do good; train me your statutes” (Ps. 119:68). God’s goodness is expressed in his instructing the psalmist his legal guidelines. God’s statutes usually are not seen merely as an expression of his position as simply lawgiver, but in addition as variety Lord. Scripture is an extension of God’s loving presence.
This fact is expressed in one other psalm that celebrates God’s safety from enemies. Right here, the psalmist proclaims, “In God, whose phrase I reward, within the Lord, whose phrase I reward, in God I belief; I shall not be afraid” (Ps. 56:10–11). At first look, it is a unusual and surprising coupling of things. It begins usually: when I’m afraid, I put my belief in God. Then, fairly than praising the Lord who rescued him, he repeats thrice: I reward God’s phrase (Ps. 56:4, 10)! Clearly, for the psalmist, the goodness of God and the goodness of Scripture go hand-in-hand.
Twenty heat, participating readings, primarily based totally on Psalm 119, encourage common meditation on God’s presents in Scripture—together with blessedness, hope, and peace—in addition to warnings and knowledge that deliver repentance.
The First Helvetic Confession—an early Reformed assertion of religion—declares, “The precept intent of all canonical Scripture is that God needs to be good to mankind.”1 The goodness of God is the chief motivation for the Bible’s existence. In a later Reformed confession, we discover phrases that really feel like a press release of doctrine and exclamation of reward rolled into one:
God, the Supreme Choose, not solely took care to have his phrase, which is “the facility of God unto salvation to everybody that believes” (Rom 1:16), dedicated to writing by Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles, however has additionally watched and cherished it with paternal care from the time it was written as much as the current, in order that it couldn’t be corrupted by craft of Devil or fraud of man. Subsequently the Church justly ascribes to it his singular grace and goodness that she has, and should the top of the world (2 Pet 1:19), a “positive phrase of prophecy” and “Holy Scriptures” (2 Tim 3:15).2
God, as not solely a choose but in addition a loving Father, cherishes and watches over his phrase so as to protect his saving gospel. This sort paternal act is described as a show of his “singular grace and goodness.”
What Makes You So Particular?
To drag issues collectively, let me take us to the plains of Moab. Moses is getting ready the folks of Israel to enter the promised land. As a part of the preparation, he sees it as essential to remind them of what makes them so distinctive and blessed among the many nations. I feel that is an instructive and highly effective reminder for us. He says:
For what nice nation is there that has a god so close to to it because the LORD our God is to us, at any time when we name upon him? And what nice nation is there, that has statutes and guidelines so righteous as all this regulation that I set earlier than you at present? (Deut 4:7–8)
In contrast to the opposite nations, Israel had a God who was not fickle or distant; he was a trustworthy and close to presence to them, ever wanting to answer their prayers. However he was additionally a God who gave them good legal guidelines—statutes that have been in themselves righteous however that additionally enabled them to stay upright lives. One commentator writes, “A ‘righteous’ decree, in brief, is one which results in and maintains correct covenant relationship.”3 God offers his phrase to his folks as a result of he desires to be close to his folks. His presence—his private and verbal presence—is what makes them who they’re. God’s private and verbal presence are the distinctive treasures given to his treasured possession (Ex. 19:6; Deut. 7:6). It’s no much less true for us. God and his phrase collectively are our crown, our distinctive glory as his folks. Will we imagine this?
We All Want Reminders!
Within the busyness of life it’s all too straightforward to overlook who God is, what he has completed for us, and who we’re due to him. Crossway desires to assist! Enroll at present to obtain concise Scripture-filled, gospel-saturated reminders that can encourage you and strengthen your stroll with Jesus.
Love Songs to Scripture
Except we imagine this, we will be unable to make sense of Bible passages that reward God’s phrase, not to mention Scripture’s grandiose, 176-verse love tune to God’s phrase: Psalm 119. We gained’t perceive why hymn writers pen songs like:
Oh, great, great Phrase of the Lord!
The lamp that our Father above
So kindly has lighted to show us the best way
That results in the arms of his love!4
Or,
Effectively Thy works proclaim Thee, Lord;
Higher nonetheless Thy residing Phrase
All of God that man can bear,
Shines in softened glory there.5
But, most vital of all, until we imagine it we may have a tough time delighting in Scripture. Except we totally embrace the goodness of God within the present of Scripture, we could also be vulnerable to approaching Bible studying as a chore fairly than a pleasure.
Cultivating Delight
As soon as our considering is sound relating to Scripture, and we actually do obtain it as a present, how can we practice our hearts to catch as much as our heads? In different phrases, how can we domesticate delight within the Scriptures?
Personalize the Bible.
We should repeatedly remind ourselves that, by means of Scripture, God is personally talking to us as a result of he desires to grant us present upon present. We have to remind ourselves that the Bible is a relational e book by means of which God is extending his hand to us time and again—to form us, refine us, bless us, and redeem us. Don’t dismiss the seemingly sentimental fact that Scripture is God’s love letter to us. It actually is. Keep in mind that.
Don’t dismiss the seemingly sentimental fact that Scripture is God’s love letter to us. It actually is.
Be ruthlessly trustworthy.
We should ask ourselves onerous questions like: Do I really give the Bible any severe consideration? If not, why would we count on that love and delight will spring from our hearts? If one thing is genuinely good, the best way to understand it isn’t by remaining distant from it. For instance, I present my appreciation for a great TV present by giving it fixed consideration. And as I give it devoted consideration, I adore it an increasing number of. It’s related with Scripture. The extra loving consideration we give it, the extra doubtless it’s that we’ll develop in our love for it.
Regulate expectations.
Once we come to the Bible, we have to ask ourselves: What do I count on to obtain from this studying? This may occasionally assist make clear whether or not we’re pursuing a sensible and good purpose, or one that can solely disappoint. As an example, if I need to study a brand new and thrilling fact, be modified immediately, or really feel one thing each quiet time, then I will be disenchanted. But when I come to be fed in no matter method God deems proper for that day, then I will not be disenchanted and, as an alternative, can discover pleasure in no matter God offers me. God’s Phrase most frequently shapes an individual after repeated, considerate publicity to it—fairly than by momentary flashes of perception.
Pray for our hearts.
We have to comply with the lead of the psalmist, who prayed for steadfastness and wholeheartedness towards Scripture (Ps. 119:5; 119:135), for a coronary heart inclined to God’s phrase (Ps. 119:36), for understanding (Ps. 119:34), and for wondrous insights (Ps. 119:18). Solely God can bend our wayward hearts towards his phrase. Solely God could make us lovers of his good Phrase. Fortunately, these are his wishes for us. So, let’s pray like we imagine that.
As we cooperate with God in cultivating delight, could he allow us to know and really feel that the Bible is true present from his loving coronary heart.
Notes:
- “The Helvetic Confession (1536),” in James T. Dennison, ed., Reformed Confessions of the sixteenth and seventeenth Century in English Translation (Reformation Heritage, 2008), 1:344.
- “The System Consensus Helvetica (1675),” Dennison, Reformed Confessions, 4:520 (italics added).
- Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 118.
- Julia Sterling, “Oh, Fantastic Phrase!”
- H. F. Lyte, “Effectively Thy Works Proclaim Thee”
Uche Anizor is the writer of The Goodness of God within the Present of Scripture: 20 Meditations.
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