What's Feeding Your Spirit?

   

In today’s world it’s so easy to get so busy for everything but God. We make weekly church attendance seem like that’s all we need, but in order to develop an intimate relationship with God we need to spend daily time with Him. From a human perspective, the busyness of life can keep us from scripture. Sometimes, we can be lazy when it comes to our spiritual health and responsibilities. And sometimes, we simply don’t understand how important Bible study actually is. We get so caught up with technology that we think that it can provide us with the intimacy that we need. Scrolling on instagram or watching youtube videos, we think that this fulfills the requirement of spending time with Jesus. An inspirational post here and watching a sermon on the way to work, and we feel as if our souls have what they need to last us all week. There’s nothing wrong with these things, but they can’t substitute for reading our Bible. A lot of quotes or viewpoints we see on social media may sound good, but are they really inspired by God’s word? We aren’t to just take someone else’s views as truth if we haven’t studied the scripture for ourself. Some may rationalize their lack of Bible study by saying that life is too busy or studying the Bible is too hard. Others, who struggle with sin, as we all do even as Christians, may honestly admit that it’s just too convicting to read. Please don’t let excuses stop you from studying God’s Word. From a spiritual perspective, sin in our lives can keep us from spending time in the Word. We can lose our spiritual appetite for the knowledge of God. The forces of darkness are doing all they can to keep us from studying God’s truth. Any activity that uses up our time will do — it doesn’t have to be evil, just something that weighs us down and takes our time. We might ask,”Isn’t going to church enough? Isn’t reading and studying the Bible what pastors and Sunday school teachers do?” It’s true that this is a large part of what pastors and teachers are to do, but it’s also what everyone in a church congregation is supposed to do. Pastor Alistair Begg has said that his job as a pastor isn’t just to feed the sheep, but to teach them how to cook! 

Jesus made it clear that learning and living the Bible is God’s will for our lives. He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the most of God” (Matthew 4:4). Bible study isn’t just a nice thing to do — it’s essential to our lives!

   “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Learning God’s truth involves the work of studying. Like divers who work to locale pearls in the ocean or miners who labor to find gold in the earth, Christians are workers who study the Bible to discover God’s truth. We live our lives before God, and as servants we’re to regularly present our lives to Him to be examined. We hope to have a sense of His approval and eventually hear from Him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Divine approval comes from diligently studying God’s Word so we can ACCURATELY share it with others.

   Learning God’s truth through reading and studying the Bible is something He wants for us. Consider these verses:

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Acts 17:11

 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 

2 Timothy 2:15

   Verses like these should motivate us to be in our Bibles. Believers generally agree that the will of God includes gathering regularly with God’s people to worship and pray, living a life of faith and obedience, serving the Lord and spreading His gospel — but how many add that studying the Bible is also the will of God? Is this optional or essential? As the Berean believers (Acts 17:11) studied the scripture in an attempt to verify the truthfulness of Paul’s preaching, they were thorough in their approach to God’s Word and more than likely using one of several study methods that I’ll mention in a later blog. The Bereans were so committed to this that they did it DAILY. It’s a mistake for us to accept the message of Christian teachers just because they’re humorous, dynamic, on television or radio, or have written books. The content of their message must be true, and it’s good for us to validate it from our own study. Bible teachers should never be offended that people do this; they should encourage it.

   Believers who are growing in the knowledge of God’s truth have made a conscious decision to study the Word. Seek out those people who know a lot about the Bible, and ask them about their own study habits —then imitate their examples. We are all given the same twenty-four hours a day. You might consider rising earlier in the morning or eliminating a television show or two in the evening. Devote even a small amount of time to Bible study, and add to it as the pursuit becomes a regular habit in your life. Just like eating, studying the Bible is a lifelong activity. We’ll never get to the point where we’ve learned all there is to know about God’s Word, then be able to stop. Our spirit needs God’s Word every day just like our bodies need food. It’s wise to make your study time a matter of prayer. We pray about many things, and this subject is important to Him, too. It’s no accident that God allowed you to be born at this time with all the advantages we have to learn His word. Pray about your Bible study every day, because “the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8).

Our adversary, the devil, does all he can to keep us from obeying God’s will. God wants to bless us, and the devil wants to destroy us. If we as believers fall away from our Bible study, it might seem unimportant to us at that time. But we can be sure that the forces of darkness are celebrating and planning new ways to attack us.

   When Jesus defeated Satan’s temptation in the wilderness, Luke says,”The devil..departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). The devil leaves us for only a brief time. He always returns with different temptations until he finds what effective against us. Satan knows that Christians, without regular time in the Bible, become weak and ineffective for Christ. But with prayer and the sword of the Spirit — the Word of God — we can overcome this enemy of our souls, enjoying our time with God as we feed on His Word.