“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
To get the students in my youth group to take the Bible seriously, I sometimes point out their obedience to school teachers they don’t really respect and who teach curricula they don’t really like.
“They tell you to go home and read these chapters and write the answers to these questions and study these notes, and you do it,” I say. “Why?”
“Because we want to get a good grade,” they say.
“Okay, but when God says the Bible is His message of love to you, and it contains all the secrets of living the best life possible, it sits in your room day after day collecting dust. What’s more important: a good grade in English or a good life that honors God and serves others?”
They already know the answer, and so do we. Yet we make the same mistake, obeying various entities and impulses rather than listening to the Lord who created us, saves us, quickens us, and sustains us.
Of course, with students, you have to point out that this doesn’t mean they get to ignore their homework. It means they, like all of us, must find order and balance. And a life that excludes enriching ourselves with God’s word is a life without order and balance. God shouldn’t have to compete with a history teacher, exercise class, or Instagram for snippets of our attention.
Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Think about what God is telling us. The Bible is not like a movie or novel; it’s not a two-dimensional representation of life. It IS life. It is organic and alive. It doesn’t just feed you; it learns you, appraises you, and transforms you.
Read the verse again. Note how fearfully and wonderfully precise God’s Word is. Did you even realize there is a difference between your soul and your spirit? The two are interconnected but severable. I cannot distinguish between my own spirit and soul, but the Word can. It can simultaneously fine-tune them, amplifying one, reducing the other, and changing us into the image of God.
There’s only one caveat: you have to read it.
It’s unfortunate that if a college professor assigned us to read the book of John and said there would be a test on it, we would study it voraciously. But when God asks us to learn his Word and says it can help us pass the test of life by providing us light and direction, we often shrug and pass it by.
But there’s good news: today is a brand-new day! The Word of God—alive but slumbering—is probably waiting somewhere in your home right now. Open it, read it, and let it live!
“Love” by George Herbert
George Herbert (1593–1633) was a British minister and poet. His devotional poems remain among the best in the English language. This poem puts the love of God into bodily form. In the first stanza, Love welcomes the poet, but the poet, aware of his own sin, recoils from Love; in response, Love draws closer. As you read, put yourself in the poet’s shoes and note Love’s tender response to our inadequacies.
“So I did sit and eat.” That’s a wonderful description of surrendering to God’s love.
Recommended Reading
Here’s another great column by Annie Holmquist. It’s about clothes, and there’s a lot of wisdom in it!
Thank you for reading!
School may be out for the summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean rest. I'll be making a movie with my youth group, writing a weekly newspaper column, and working on a series of inspirational gothic romances (coming soon, I hope). I’m so thankful to find the presence of God in these and many other opportunities, including writing this Substack for you!
Wonderful! I enjoyed the article about clothing as well.
Such great advice, Jody! Why would we NOT want to commune with the Creator of the universe in His Word? And yet we pass it by for all the distractions of this world. Sad but true. Your words have inspired me to go deeper in my Bible reading. Thanks! (Robin Lee)