If you know anything about me, I am not one to rush through Scripture. I have now been studying Genesis for over a year. That is not to say I haven’t read anything else. Certainly, I have spent time cross-referencing, reading other books of the Bible, and I’ve enjoyed the occasional devotional. However, my main goal has been to let the scripture breathe as I study the whole Bible and not dictate the pace. If more time is needed to study, understand, and become obedient to the text than more time is needed.
This can be the trouble with a reading plan, especially a plan that tackles reading the whole Bible in just one year. If you’ve ever attempted or actually accomplished the process, you know how fast paced it can feel. It can often become centered around the task of reading and can lose sight of listening to the Word of God.
However, the greater trouble is having no plan at all. Entering into the next year with no plan, commitment, or targeted desire for growth with reading the Word of God will leave you chasing this terrible habit within your spiritual growth… "inspiration".
A misleading idea of the use of Scripture is that we are to be instantly inspired every time we open our Bible. Keep in mind, this is different from the Bible being the Inspired Word of God. The Scriptures are God-Breathed. God has spoken through the equipping and directing of the Holy Spirit onto called men. The practice I am speaking of is something far different where we attempt to make the Word of God something of a trinket. It is the mindset that can look like us flipping to a random verse to solve our immediate problems, like shaking a magic eight ball. It is where the Bible is looked to, only in times of needing a quick fix so we can move forward and take it from there.
Can the Bible inspire us? Of course. But the mindset that “inspiration” is all that it does, will only ever have us turning to the Bible when we need another dose of inspiration. We can coast from inspiration to inspiration without ever leaning on God. The practice of regularly being in the Bible is about letting God use His Words to save us, transform us, mold us and ultimately reassure us. These are the results of a relationship. Holding onto the Bible as merely a motivational tool misses the importance of key aspects of our relationship with God. How inspiring will it feel in times of teaching, discipline, rebuking and correction? What about training in righteousness? (All of which are the real key elements of Scripture.)
2 Timothy
16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
An athlete doesn’t consistently wake up at the insane hours of the morning just because of inspiration. There will be mornings where they will not be so inspired and downright discouraged, yet they will still get out of bed and train. This is because their main motivational factor is not inspiration but an intrinsic meaning that pushes their behavior.
When we truly approach God’s Word with a humbled heart that recognizes the grace and beauty of the Almighty God gifting us wisdom and understanding through His Written Word, we are then truly ready to let the Word of God take root and drive our behavior. It helps us leave behind the battle of trying to change ourselves, so that we are now free to respond to how God is changing us. Somedays studying the Bible could be boring or even confusing (genealogy lists, anyone?) but one thing it will always be is… enriching. When we let the Word of God breathe over our life, we will see that we are being taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained up into the image of Christ more and more.
Don’t waste this next year reserving the Word of God for the next time you need to be inspired. Strike up a plan, commit, practice diligence, and ask God for help to run the course. Choose enrichment over inspiration.
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1 Corinthians 9
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control,b lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
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