When the Bible becomes white noise in your life, you’re in a dangerous place.
I know, that would never happen to you. The Bible is the crux of your life. You couldn’t make it a day without it. Regardless of how much you read, study, and listen, you feel it’s the minimum you could live with every day. But are you really listening? Are you responding? Are you refreshed, convicted, challenged, nourished, enlightened, emboldened, encouraged, strengthened?
Even when our intentions are to be in God’s Word regularly, just because we’re in God’s Word doesn’t mean we’re letting God’s Word into us. When we treat God’s Word like any other book, we’re not entering into the depth of relationship God offers us through it. When we treat God’s Word like an obligation of daily devotion, our devotion can easily slip from relationship to compulsion, from delight to duty.
Being in God’s Word out of duty can be as detrimental as not being in it at all, because it can become a white noise that makes us feel better but doesn’t significantly impact our lives. Yes, there’s an argument that any exposure of God’s Word is better than none, but it’s because of God’s power, not our own efforts, that God can penetrate even the most hard-hearted or lackadaisical attempts. God knows the yielding of our hearts even when we’re not too sure. Sometimes we feel stuck, but that doesn’t mean we’re stuck. We need to persevere…in God’s presence. Retreating away from God is never the best choice, whether that retreat is in the time we spend with him, the investment we give to him through Scripture or prayer, or the sensitivity we have as we listen and respond to the Holy Spirit.
Let’s not get legalistic about it. Let’s just get into and stay in God’s Word in a way that stands firmly on God’s promise that his Word is alive and active inside us.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
There is purpose in God’s Word.
There is power in God’s Word.
There is presence in God’s Word.
But you have to be active in God’s Word.
Turn off the white noise. God has a level of surround sound and high-definition beyond your wildest imaginations.
Pure Purpose 