I was chatting to a young man about different religions and cultures. He mentioned something someone had quoted to him from the Bible, meaning it to say that there are many ways to God. He said that it didn’t make sense to him and I agreed. We read some more verses that disproved what the man had told him. I was very proud of this young man when he came to the conclusion that the greatest problem among Christians is that they do not know the bible. A lot of Christians do not have adequate knowledge of the Bible in order to be able to defend their faith. Can we defend our faith? How often do we get called on to defend it, or do we just shy away from controversial and confrontational conversations about religion?
Psalm 1:2, But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
How often do we do this? Life is so busy and demanding that it often seems like an unattainable goal.
Joshua 1:8, This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
The Law of Moses doesn’t apply to us today because we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and not by the law, and although we aren’t called to practice all the things demanded by the law, we are still expected to know the Bible. Being made free of the law does not mean that we have been made free of the Word of God.
1 John 5:14-15, Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
How will we ever know what God’s will is if we don’t know what is written in God’s Word? When we pray the only way we can pray according to God’s will is to know what God’s will is. And the only way we will ever know what God’s will is, is if we know what is written in God’s Word. We cannot possibly pray according to the Word if we never read our Bible, or even if we only read it sporadically. So many people rely on daily readings or devotionals instead of reading the Bible for themselves. There’s nothing wrong with using a devotional because there are some really informative and inspiring one’s, but there is so much more that God has put in His Word especially for us. When we read something that someone else has written, it can help us, inspire us and guide us, and mostly that’s what it’s meant to do. Even though it has value and sometimes we really gain great insights, it is still second hand inspiration. A second hand vision so to say. I think each one of us should aspire to hear from God ourselves. It should be a priority for us to gain insights for ourselves from the Word. We do not live in the Old Testament times where God only spoke to certain people. We have the Holy Spirit who communicates God’s words to us if we care to listen. I remember clearly the first time that I realized God was actually speaking to me. It was beyond awesome. I was so excited.
What we have to remember is that we can’t just know a few choice verses and think that we know the Word. We have to read is actively. It is so easy for people to take verses and use them out of context. If we don’t know the Word then we cannot refute them if they do this. We need to be confident enough in our knowledge of the bible to be able to know how to defend our faith. I remember reading my bible very intermittently for a number of years until one day I decided to start reading it seriously. I read daily for about a month and then stopped for a couple of weeks. I realized that I had stopped and started again. Something happened and suddenly the bible just opened up to me and I couldn’t help myself. I would sneak away during the day to read my bible. It felt like I could feel the love of God emanating from the pages. I realized that it wasn’t just a complicated book, but that it had life. That is how I learned to love the bible and why I am still reading it and discovering new truths all the time. I would like to challenge you, if you aren’t actively reading your bible, to start and experience God’s love and grace first hand.
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