I’ve been discussing walking by the Spirit, and last time I said there were three vital things needed to do that: Love for God, Humility/Teachableness, and Obedience to God’s Word. Almost unspoken, because it is so obvious, is the need to read and study the Bible in this matter of growth in spiritual knowledge and ultimately walking by the Spirit.
I have found that a good long-term practice when reading scripture is to look for the direct commands, what I call the “to do’s” of God. These obviously are there for us “to do,” right? However, when we are reading scripture, it is easy to simply read over these commands to action and continue on our way, not taking time to think them through and act on them. After all, we’ve a time limit on how long we can sit still, be silent, and read the Bible each day before charging into the day’s tasks, so we’ve got to keep pressing on to meet our chapter quota … don’t we? Maybe not. Sometimes, like when we read a “to do” from God, we need to stop and let the words sink in so that we can actually do the “to do.”
I’ve done this numerous times, stopped and took time to think about what I’ve read (when you actually say it, it’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?). When I do that, spending more time in one passage or even one verse, reading and re-reading over several days (even weeks), I begin to “get it,” that is, I understand more what God is telling us in his “to do,” his command.
I call this “camping out” in scripture.
When I was a kid, my family went tent camping for vacation many times. I loved the heavy green canvas tent, the unforgettable, one-of-a-kind smell of it, the heat of the tent inside when the sun shone on it; food cooked on the Coleman stove, meals eaten at the picnic table, Coleman lanterns and, of course, campfires at night, all of us sitting around it with sticks readied for roasting marshmallows. It was always fun to be in the great outdoors and though camping out took lots of work, it was always worth it, with wonderful memories made as a result.
So, I pull on those kinds of good memories when I think of “camping out” in scripture. What do I mean by camping out in scripture? I take the time to re-read and think about what I’ve read. Sometimes I re-read a chapter or even several chapters to get the context—that is, the verses surrounding a section of scripture that reveal what the writer is talking about—firmly set in my mind. We read scripture in its context to rightly understand what the writer of that scripture meant, then from there we can make a right interpretation and ultimately an appropriate application, applying the truth in our own context, doing what God said to do.
You’ve heard the saying, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” Well, when we re-read scriptures, go over them in our minds thinking about them (that’s biblical meditation), the Spirit of God gives understanding of the passage. He often brings other scriptures to mind, which shed light on the passage or verse we are focusing on, and we can learn. When we give the Spirit of God the material to work with (mostly his own words) and ourselves the time to listen and process his words, he can and does transform us when we cooperate with him (Romans 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:7-13).
This takes time and effort, but it is well worth it. Just like real camping is worth the effort. Simply reading the Bible, without thinking about what is being said and without being obedient to God’s calls to action, his “to do’s,” does not garner the blessing of God. It is the obedience to his words that gains his blessing. I can say that with confidence because it was not my original idea, Jesus said it; I’m simply restating what he said (see Matthew 7:24; Luke 11:28; John 14:21, 23-24).
The truth is, when we obey Jesus’ words, we can be more blessed than Mary, his mother, who bore and raised him, and who was favored and blessed by God (Luke 1:28, 42). Listen to what Jesus said: 27 “Now while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, ‘Blessed (happy, favored by God) is the womb that gave birth to You and the breasts at which You nursed!’ 28 But He said, ‘On the contrary, blessed (happy, favored by God) are those who hear the word of God and continually observe it’” (Luke 11:27-28 AMP, emphasis added). [Sidenote: it is obvious that Mary was a young woman who loved and obeyed God’s Word, to receive such accolades from God the Father.]
When we obey his word, our God will make his home in us, his resting place, as Jesus said, “If anyone [really] loves Me, he will keep My word (teaching); and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling place with him” (John 14:23 AMP, emphasis added).
Harking back to our original topic, to walk by the Spirit means to obey the teachings of Jesus and by inference the whole of scripture; it is all God’s word. The Holy Spirit living in us is our Teacher (John 16:13) and he will work with us to transform us into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29); that is our life goal. We should begin to look and act more and more like Jesus. But that happens only when we cooperate with him. The obedience part is on us.
Let’s make our lifestyles ones of “yes, Lord.” Even when we feel time-deprived, like we don’t have enough time for spending in the Word and meditating on it, then doing it.
Let’s consider that idea for a few days: “How can I make my lifestyle one of ‘yes, Lord’ and read, meditate on, and obey God’s Word when I have so little time to do it?”
In the next blog post we’ll talk about how to continue progressing in our spiritual growth and walking in the Spirit even when time is at a premium.
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Photo by Rames Quinerie on Unsplash.