How to Study the Bible So God Actually Speaks to You

• Good evening. I wonder if I could just pause for a moment and ask you a question that’s burning in my spirit. When you open your Bible, what are you truly looking for? Are you looking for facts, for doctrine, for a lesson to file away? Or are you looking for him? You see, I believe with all my heart that most of us, with the very best of intentions, have been approaching this holy book all wrong.
• We treat it like a manual, a rule book, a historical archive. We come with our highlighters and our notebooks ready to dissect, to outline, to master the material, and there’s a place for that certainly. But oh dear friend, if that is where we stop, we have missed the entire point. We have walked up to the doorway of a grand palace, admired the intricate carvings on the doorframe, studied the architecture of the arch, and we have never once stepped inside to meet the king who lives there.
• The greatest shift you will ever make in your time with God’s word is not learning a new technique or buying a new commentary. It is a shift in your heart’s posture. It is the move from seeing the Bible as a source of information to encountering it as the primary place of communion. It is the difference between reading a love letter to analyze the grammar and reading a love letter to hear the heart of the one who loves you.
• The words are the same. The paper is the same. But the purpose the purpose is worlds apart. God did not give us scripture simply to inform our minds. He gave it to transform our lives by revealing his heart. Every line, every story, every psalm is an extension of his voice. It is his chosen means of speaking personally, intimately and powerfully to you and to me right here, right now.
• Think of it. The God who spoke worlds into being, who whispered to prophets in the night, who spoke blessing over children and forgiveness over the broken. That same God has preserved his heart and his thoughts in this book. And he didn’t do that so we could have a theological debate. He did it so we could have a conversation.