I was writing my friend a letter today and I got to thinking about the love letter that God has written to us- the Bible. I always get excited to get letters from my friends from afar and seem to want to read them as soon as I get them. I will pour over the words for a good time and laugh and smile and sometimes even cry...I will lift up my voice in prayer for the writer and then will send back a response as soon as I am able to. So it got me wondering why I am not so excited to read the best letter of all- the one that God wrote through time and made available to us to show us He loves us and is with us. It also gives us guidance and direction for living the Christian life. It is like our road map. Without it we are lost. Failing to read it is like failing to get any directions for a road trip going to Washington, and end up in Arizona. It's just ridiculous! Yet, how many times do we fail to acknowledge the importance of being in that Book?
I should be pouring over the words with the same zeal as I would with a letter from my friend, because in fact Jesus is my best friend; the best one I could ever have. And He's done something that none of my other friends have done. He has laid down His life for mine. In John 15:13 it says "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for His friends." I should also be lifting up my voice in prayer and responding to God, the One who longs to be my friend and to hear from me. I mean He actually desires to have a personal relationship with us, and that goes far beyond religion! He needs to hear my feedback, my questions, my ponderings. Because when I am truly digging in the Word and asking the Lord to reveal His truth, having a pure heart, the Holy Spirit will allow me to be enlightened with the knowledge God wishes to impart with us through His Scripture.
Like gems in a quarry are God's words in His Bible. They are beautiful and precious, and there for the taking-but we have to go looking for them. The Lord has promised to us who go looking "Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you WILL find; knock, and it will be opened to you". (Matthew 7:7) The guidebook of how to live the Christian life is found within His Word and without regularly being in it- we will fail at living a life pleasing to Christ.
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