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Do you ever find yourself struggling to get your Bible out and read it?  Does it seem outdated, not relevant to your circumstances, and hard to understand?  How can you love the Bible when it just seems so hard to grasp?

I didn’t always love the Bible, either.

Having grown up in the church I had known all the Bible stories from my early childhood.  I had heard them all in Sunday School or read them in a children’s Bible storybook.

 

It was not until I was in my 40’s that I realized I looked at those stories much the same way I did fairy tales and other literature from my younger years.  The Bible was just a rule book to me, helping me to be a “good girl”.  (You can read how grace changed my focus here).

Reading and studying the Bible was a duty.  An item on a checklist that made me feel like I was a better Christian for marking it off each day.

But God wanted me to know Him and His word!  He has helped me to see the Bible for the wonderful gift it is.  I can honestly say that God’s word is very precious to me now.  I can’t imagine life without it.

This may be a more personal post than most that I write. I want to share with you why I love the Bible as much as I do.  And the purpose of my sharing is to hopefully ignite a passion in your own heart and soul to experience a love for the Bible as well.

I Love the Bible Because God Established My Faith Through It

Have you ever found yourself in a crisis of faith where you wondered:   “What exactly do I believe and is any of it even true?”  Many years ago, I found myself in that place.

Actually, I was shaken to the core with someone else’s wrestlings with those questions.

Having grown up in the church, I had known all the Bible stories from early childhood.  I could quote Scripture.  My faith seemed intact, I thought.

But there I was – face to face with doubt.  What if the Bible wasn’t true?  What if everything I had believed was just a made-up story in someone’s attempt to explain life and all its meaning?

I started pouring over the Bible, looking for answers, wanting desperately for God to speak to me and tell me it was true.  One day, as I sat down to read, I was feeling so heavy-hearted with confusion and doubt.  I cried out to the Lord to show me some proof that the Bible was truly His word.

Shortly after I had prayed my prayer, I was reading in Isaiah.  I really wasn’t familiar with the passage at all.  But then I came upon 2 verses, and there it was.  He had answered!!!

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.”

Isaiah 45:18,19  ESV

God was telling me plainly that He, the one who created everything, does not speak in obscure ways in order for us to struggle to figure things out.  He does not ask us to seek Him only to find nothing.  He promises that He speaks the truth.  What He speaks, His word, is His truth.  And He is the one who declares what is right.

My doubt began to fade away.  God had spoken so clearly to me and I was determined from that day on, to hang onto HIs word as truth, no matter what.

This search for truth created a deep love in me for the Bible.  I no longer saw reading or studying it as part of a religious duty to which I needed to bind myself.  It felt alive to me and full of meaning.  It became the standard to which I measure everything else.

I Love the Bible Because God Used it to Give Me Comfort in My Greatest Need

Our 16 year old son, Caleb, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 16.  He had battled with a seizure disorder from the time he was 9.  One dreary Monday morning, after having a seizure and falling back to sleep, no one could get him to wake back up.

After being at the emergency room for what seemed like days, we came back home to an empty house.  My heart was in shock.  As the hours and days went by, my mind was full of attempts to understand everything.

Caleb had accepted Christ as Savior at a very young age and was a strong believer.  I knew he was in Heaven.  But for some reason, I found myself tortured with where he was.  Was his soul just floating around somewhere?

Maybe it was because I had been so sensitive to his safety for many years due to his seizures, but I suddenly felt desperate to know where exactly our son had gone and was he safe.

Out came my Bible and I began searching.  When I read that Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43 ESV), I can’t even begin to describe the relief and comfort I felt, having the full assurance from God’s word that right then and there, Caleb was with Jesus.

Wherever Heaven might actually be located, Caleb was with Jesus, and that’s what mattered.  My mama’s heart could rest a little easier.

I kept looking in the Bible and found the story about David losing his infant child.  He had prayed for God to heal him, but the child died.

“But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”  2 Sam. 12:23 ESV

David rose up and worshipped God anyway because he knew he would see his child again.

Once again, my heart found great comfort in the Bible because God’s promise was that I too would see our son again as well.

During that time, a friend shared a verse with me through a Facebook post.

  Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.”  Psalm 55:22 ESV

I knew that verse, but I didn’t really know the truth of that verse.  “To cast” means “to throw”.  The word “burden” can mean “anything that you’re been given”.  So “to cast your burden on the Lord” means “to throw what you’ve been given onto Him”.  So I did.  And I learned that He not only could take it, but I felt much better when He did.

My faith became real in a way I’d never experienced because His word worked.  It did what He promised it would do.  I felt great comfort when I most needed it.

I Love the Bible Because I Find Great Treasure in Learning to Know God

Lest you think I only need and love the Bible for life’s most trying times, I want you to know how much I love finding great treasure in God’s word in good times as well.

A seeker is one of the ways I define myself.  I love the thrill of a find!  Whether it’s a great bargain, a wonderful book that shows up in a used book store, or just the right recipe for what I want to cook, I love finding what I’m searching for!

More than anything, I absolutely love finding revelation about 2 things:  who God is and who He says I am.  It’s the main reason I love to read and study the Bible.  He has so much hidden treasure He wants us to find!

The writer of Proverbs tells us:

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.  Proverbs 25:2  ESV

This doesn’t mean God is being cruel to hold things back from us.  No, it’s like bringing delight to a child on an Easter egg hunt.  You hide the eggs so the child can have the thrill of finding them.  And the delight comes not just in finding the eggs but in the process of the search as well.

When someone simply tells me a truth about God, it may stick with me or it may not.  But when I go on a hunt to find the truth, to search for what God wants to reveal to me about a certain subject, and then I find it?  The truth I find means way more to me because I have spent the time to search and wrestle and learn.  And it truly becomes a part of me as a result.

Not to mention that when I do find a revelation in His word -some idea or truth or understanding that I’ve never seen before – there is nothing quite like it!

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.   Deut. 29:29 ESV

What He reveals to us about Himself, about how He sees us and the plans He has for us, not just as a people, but as individuals, these revelations actually become our inheritance.  We can claim these truths and promises for our very own.

And when we see Him and all He’s given us, obedience no longer feels like a duty.  It just flows out of us in response to all He’s shown us of His beautiful character.

The greatest treasure of all in the Bible is the opportunity to know God more.  I learn about His nature by looking at Jesus.  I learn of His power and His compassion by understanding more of the Holy Spirit.  And I experience for myself His faithfulness and trustworthiness when His word comes alive in my own life.

 

What about you, dear friend?  Do you love the Bible?  Have you spent time to know God in its pages?

Can you imagine?  The God of the universe wanted us to know His heart and His nature and His ways so much that He wanted it all put in written form to ensure that generations and generations to come would know of His great love.

The Apostle Paul explains it this way:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.    Romans 15:4 ESV

Ah, dear Hope Dweller, do you see it?  Scripture is given to us to instruct us, to give us endurance, and to give us encouragement.  Why?  So we might have hope.  Hope – the expectation of good.

We’ve been given the end of the story!  Regardless of circumstances, even the lowest, darkest times where grief might lead you, we can have hope!  Regardless of struggles with doubt and belief, we can still have hope!  And in the midst of learning and finding new and glorious revelations, we can be overjoyed in hope.

I love the Bible because in its pages, I have hope.  I meet God, and He is worth knowing.

 

Savoring the Word with you,

 

Trish

 

In the comments below, I’d love to hear why you love God’s word.  Maybe you’d want to share something He’s shown you about Himself?  Or some truth He’s revealed to you about how He sees you in His great love?  I also understand you may be in a place right now where you don’t really love the Bible.  I encourage you to be honest about where you are because every great move forward starts with being honest about our hearts.  We’d love to encourage you wherever you are!  Thanks!

 

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