Knowing God’s Word

Listen:

 “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Reflect:

There’s something —  excitement? anticipation? expectation? — about the New Year.  It stretches ahead of us with endless possibilities,  or maybe a chance to set things right that may have taken a bad turn last year. I spoke today with someone who reviewed her 2022 and at the end she simply sighed.  She’d very much like to put last year behind and start fresh this year. With the start of a new year we see a chance to reset, rethink, and make resolves.

I was inspired by this week’s topic to focus this year on rethinking and resetting how I view God’s Word in light of what two short, but powerful, verses say about it.  For example, rather than looking at a devotional time as something I should do, what if I looked at it as a time with God to equip me for today’s work?  

Sometimes simply rewording an old way of thinking can bring new life into it. In fact, the word “inspired” used here is the Greek “theopneustos‎”, which means “God-breathed”.  Breath is life. God breathed “the breath of life” into Adam (Genesis 2:7) and he became a living being.  Paul says the Bible is “God-breathed” – breathing His breath of life into us by teaching, correcting, and completely equipping each one of us in His ways.  His Word is for the purpose of leading us to holy living, to godly living, and to growing in grace.

Let Him breathe life into you this year so that you have the power, through His Spirit, to live 2023 “equipped for every good work” that God has set for you to do.  

Questions for further thought:

1. What way can you “reset” how you view God’s Word?
2. When reading the Bible, how can we keep from making make it fit our inclinations, preferences and partialities?  

Prayer of Response:

Father, thank you for your life-breathing Word.  We ask that you would draw us into it, that we wouldn’t resist any personal instruction or correction we find in it; and may your Word be a blessing to others as we live it and share it.

—Submitted by Audrey Jose
Audrey has served with Lifesprings from the very start, and is the Team Leader for Lifesprings’ conflict training. She and her husband are involved in church planting and offer coaching, expertise and opportunities worldwide for mission and church partnerships through Radstock Ministries (www.radstock.org)).