The problem with knowing a subject really well is that after a while everything we see about it seems the same. We start to read about it, whatever it is, then our eyes glaze over and we start skimming…because we have it in our heads that we’ve already seen that, heard that, know that.
That’s the problem with being raised as a Christian. Okay. That sounds bad. Being raised in a Christian home is a good thing. Definitely a good thing.
But when we grow up going to Sunday school and VBS and hearing about God over, and over…we get this idea in our head about God and stop seeking to understand Him more. We can develop a tendency to read our Bible and simply be refreshed on what the “story” is. Yes, Jesus walked on water, He calmed a storm, we know about Cain and Able and Joseph and his runway-worthy robe. When we think we “know” God, we stop trying to know Him. These words become stories. The chapters become anecdotes, reminding us of things we already know.
Just a few nights ago I was chatting with my small group within the high school Youth Group at our church. We’ve been studying how we can be better at reading the Bible. In our groups leaders were asked to pitch a few questions to the teens. Earlier in the evening, we all read a passage from James. One question we asked them was, “What does this passage tell us about God?”
When I looked at the questions, I gravitated toward the others on the sheet. Things like, “What’s the main point of this passage?” or “How should our attitudes and actions change after reading this?”
But when we started our discussion, I was surprised when the majority of my group said the question about what the passage tells us about God was their favorite. One girl explained why this was. She said that constantly asking ourselves what an individual passage says about God will continue to push our faith. We’ll continue to grow and understand Him better. Forcing ourselves to pinpoint what a small section of Biblical text says about God will help us examine Him without the context of everything else we have learned in the past.
Brilliant.
I couldn’t agree more. Every chapter, every book, every passage of the Bible speaks of our God. We can learn something about God, whether it’s His character, His plan, His love–from everything we read in the Bible. I encourage you to choose a passage and look upon it with new eyes this weekend. Isolate just a wee bit of text and ask yourself what it says, just that text, about God. You might be surprised at what you learn.
Amy
