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“I will delight in your principles and not forget your word. Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your
word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law.”
- Psalm 119:16-18, NLT
Study is when we engage ourselves, above all, with the written and spoken Word of God. Our early experience of falling into
the grace of God may be so full that we neglect study. But relationship with God, as with any person, soon requires a contribution
from us, which will largely consist of study. Calvin Miller remarks, “Mystics without study are spiritual romantics
who want relationship without effort.”
“As I spent time chewing over the endless assurances and promises to be found in the Bible, so my faith in the living
God grew stronger and held me safe in his hands. God’s word to us, especially his word spoken by his Spirit through
the Bible, is the very ingredient that feeds our faith. If we feed our souls regularly on God’s word, several times
each day, we should become robust spiritually just as we feed on ordinary food several times each day, and become robust physically.
Nothing is more important than hearing and obeying the word of God.” - David Watson
We must strive to see the Word of God at work in the lives of others, in the church, in history, and in nature. We not only
read and hear and inquire, but we meditate on what comes before us: that is, we withdraw into silence where we prayerfully
and steadily focus upon it. We must see the Bible for what it really is – not a list of do’s and don’ts,
but a cosmic, unfolding story, a story of creation, calamity, heroism and sacrifice, a war and revolution: and we have a role
to play! The Bible is not just a book of commandments: while there are commandments throughout, it is also a message to dethroned
monarchs (for that is what we are, dethroned because of sin, to be placed on thrones in the Kingdom of Heaven); it is also
a song, a poem of love; and a revelation – this is how the world works! This is how God moves! This is truth: can you
stomach it? We must not forget that the Bible, in being the Word of God, is not just ink-on-paper, but it is alive and breathing
and organic with the Spirit of God indwelling within it:
“For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost
thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” - Hebrews 4:12, NLT
God works in the depths of our heart, mind, and soul. We devote long periods of time to this. Reading and studying the Word
of God must not be an off-hand project or a slap-on-the-wrist discipline: it needs to be bedrock, foundation to our spirituality!
We must study the Word of God, we must meditate, and pray that God will meet with us when we listen and read his Word, and
pray that he will speak specifically to us, for ultimately the Word of God is God speaking! When we read the Bible, we are
reading the Word of God spoken to us!
We should also make every effort to sit regularly under the ministry of gifted teachers who can lead us deeply into the Word
and make us increasingly capable of fruitful study on our own. This discipline is one that must be touched and honed each
and every day if we wish our intimacy with God to expand like we’ve never been capable to imagine!
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