January 03, 2015
""Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law...Do not hide Your commandments from me."" (Psalm 119:18, 19b)
The Bible was not written merely by humans. Men were the scribes and God used them and their personalities and experiences with Him in the process. But the Bible is GOD'S word. ""All Scripture is God-breathed,"" wrote Paul to young Timothy.[1] Peter wrote that ""Men, moved by the Holy Spirit"" gave us the Scriptures.[2]
If the Bible has Divine origin and the mind of God is beyond our understanding then it follows that it will be gibberish to those who do not have God's aid in understanding its meaning. “The natural man (as opposed to the believer who has the Spirit of God) does not understand the things of God,” Paul wrote, and went on to say that they are only understood by the Spirit’s help.[3] This is why the Psalmist cries out to God for Divine illumination.
WONDERFUL THINGS
...are waiting in every verse. I have had the privilege of seriously reading God's word for over 40 years. Dozens of times I have come upon a verse that I thought I had fully understood, only to discover that there were deep veins of gold that went further into the recesses of God’s mind and heart. That God had wonder waiting that my best study had overlooked.
The Bible is full of wonder because it is full of God. It literally IS God, just as your words are you. It is alive and active. And, it provides ""everything we need for life and godliness.""[4]
FAITH READING
Like hidden treasure, it is waiting to be discovered. But, like everything in the Christian life, this aspect of spiritual understanding only operates by faith. We cannot arrogantly come and believe in ourselves as the source. We must turn in childlike trust to the Author. ""Open my eyes"" the humble Psalmist pleads. He understands it is impossible to grasp apart from God and that the only way to approach God and know God is through dependence…through faith.
Take a moment and memorize this simple verse and then pray it daily before you read God's Word. Pray it genuinely, looking to the Blessed One who has proven that He desires to meet and instruct you because He has gone to extraordinary lengths to give you His very words.
You will be amazed at what this faith-approach to studying will accomplish, because God is more interested in teaching you than you are in learning. And, He knows that if your faith is activated, moments in the Bible become more than humanistic study, but Divine encounters…and that is precisely what He intends.
[1] 2 Timothy 3:15-17
[2] 2 Peter 1:21
[3] 1 Corinthians 1:10-16
[4] 2 Peter 1:3-4
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