Day 10 – God Speaks Through His Scripture
As you begin to spend time with God, settle yourself somewhere quiet and comfortable. Take a few deep breaths. Spend a few moments gathering your thoughts, becoming aware of God’s presence with you and in you.
Journal for 5 minutes on yesterday’s reflection and practice. What did you think about and learn? What challenged you? Did God say anything to you throughout the day?
Then, begin today’s devotional.
Read: Genesis 32:26b
"Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
In 2019, I did something new. Though I’ve been a Christian believer for years, I’ve never participated in one of those “read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year” plans. To be sure, I’ve read the Bible before. I’ve studied it—devotionally and academically. But, to my memory, I’ve never spent a whole year with it in such a disciplined and focused way. And it was…an experience.
As I sit writing this, my yearlong journey through the Scriptures—a 365-day experiment in listening to God’s Word—is now almost complete. And, I would like to say that I’ve had a wholly inspirational and uniformly positive experience in my reading. But…I’m honestly not sure that I can say that. That isn’t to say that there’s been no effect—far from it. During my reading this past year, I have been alternately cheered, informed, bored (gasp!), and at times, even troubled. It’s interesting—I believe God speaks to us in and through the Bible, but I haven’t always known what to do with everything I’ve read this past year.
It is this troubling aspect that I’d like to think about here. And I confess, it is one of the realities about the Bible that can engage me the most and maybe—just maybe—might be among the more important things for we who call ourselves believers. You see, normally when we approach the Bible, we have a sort of dewy-eyed optimism or magical thinking that starts to kick in. We talk about the Bible as “God’s love letter” to us. We might listen only to the things we want to hear or can easily understand. We assume that simply “being in the Word” will fix our fractured lives. We grab on to those tweetable quotes or Instagram-worthy words that give us some inspirational fuel in our tanks. And in the process, we might think that these places are the only places where God speaks to us through Scripture.
But that’s only part of the Bible.
Then there is all the other stuff. The stories that are dark. Very dark. The ways in which God’s emotions and actions do not appear to be so neat and tidy. Questions about sin and righteousness and faith and salvation and judgment that don’t fit nicely with the sanitized theology that informs our daily operating existence. The stuff, at times, that just doesn’t seem to work.
Reading through the whole Bible this past year meant I couldn’t ignore this stuff. And, let’s be honest, as a Christian, I really shouldn’t have been doing so anyway. But without actually forcing myself to consistently and exhaustively read it all, it was easy to ignore those parts. And that’s where, for the last number of years at least, I’ve been missing out and relying on easier and less thoughtful answers. In retrospect, it was clearly high time for me to wrestle with the Bible.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for a retreat to cynicism or the abandonment of our faith when we come across something in the Bible we’d rather not see. Far from it. As a matter of fact, I’m encouraging you (as I encourage myself) to double down on your commitment to God and His Word by taking what you read seriously and engaging with it deeply. Analytically. Thoughtfully. Prayerfully. Honestly. This Bible, this book—it is our story. Like it or not, it connects with the very core of our being—and is worth our time. It is one of the most significant ways God speaks to us.
Letting God’s Word speak to us as it is and not as we want it to be means refusing to be satisfied with easy answers. It means realizing that this side of eternity, we continue to see “but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (1 Corinthians 13:12) as we continue to look to Him. And it means, ever and always, that ours is a “faith seeking understanding” (St. Anselm of Canterbury). The things that emerge as we wrestle with the Bible? These can be ways that God speaks to us too.
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for speaking through Your Word. Thank You for the multiple voices contained within, all guided by your one Spirit. Thank You for the ways in which Your Scripture inspires us and ministers to us. Thank You as well for the ways in which it challenges and troubles us. I pray, Lord, that we would not shy from the wrestling we need to do. I pray that we would have the courage to honestly work through Your words for us. I pray that our faith and understanding would grow richer and deeper in the process. Thank You, Lord, that You are faithful not only to bear witness to our struggles and growing pains, but respond to us and meet us in our times of need. May we indeed be people of Your Word, living for and representing You in this world.
Journal:
Take a few moments to journal through the following question(s).
Consider your relationship with Scripture. When you think about God speaking to you through the Bible, does it feel active or passive?
Consider the portions of the Bible that you struggle with. What might God be telling you about Himself even in those sections that seem hard to understand?
Today’s Practice:
Lectio Divina has been practiced for centuries as a way to study the Bible, focused on not just knowing more through Scripture but on knowing God through Scripture. Lectio Divina typically has five parts. Choose a Scripture passage and read it following the steps below.
Silence – Quietly prepare your heart. Come into God’s presence, slow down, relax, and intentionally release the chaos and noise in your mind to Him.
Read the Word – Read a Scripture passage slowly and out loud, lingering over the words. What word or phrase catches your attention, stop and attend to what God is saying to you. Don’t analyze it or judge it. Listen and wait.
Meditate – Read the Scripture a second time out loud. Savor the words. Listen for any invitation that God is extending to you in this word. Like Mary, ponder this word in your heart.
Respond, Pray – Read the Scripture a third time. Enter into a personal dialogue with God. Be truthful and authentic about what feelings the text aroused in you, where you are resistant and want to push back, what you are being invited into, etc.
Contemplate – Rest and wait in the presence of God. Allow some time for the word to sink deeply into your soul. Consider a way that you can remind yourself of this word throughout the day.
By Dr. Joshua Ziefle, Dean of the College of Ministry