Essential Reading

If fear and frustration are dragging you down, step back, consider:  What kind of soul food are you ingesting?  Are you deliberately, relentlessly going to Scripture for daily, undistracted communion with God?  If not, you need to get there.  It’s a non-negotiable in the Christian life.  When we snub the Bible, we’re saying we don’t want or need the Lord.  And that’s both foolish and dangerous!

Now I’m not suggesting that if you are consistent at Bible reading, life will be a bowl of cherries.  But I am saying:  neglecting God’s Word is asking for trouble; it’s refusing his life-saving help—crazy!  You see, God’s Word is powerful—to save us, and sustain us.

The Word of God saves us:

• “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).  New birth by what word?  “And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (v 25):  the gospel.
• “The Gospel … is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).  God speaks and creates life.
• “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (Jas. 1:18).
• Peter asks Jesus point blank, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68—and see v 63).

The Word of God sustains us:

• “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).  We’re nourished in spirit and grow in faith as we feed on God’s Word.
• Christians are “strengthened” by the gospel (Romans 16:25).
• Believers defeat Satan by wielding God’s Word (Eph. 6:17).
• Bible neglect results in spiritual immaturity (Heb. 5:11-14).

Thank God for the Bible!  Let Psalm 119:97 be your motto in 2021:  “Oh how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day.”