Amazing Love, Even When Life Hurts

By Wendy Wood

     The God who created the universe, the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the earth and everything in it, wrote a book.  He chose to reveal Himself and His purpose in bringing sinners to Himself through Christ. He chose to call us and elect us to unite us to Christ through faith and thereby invite us into relationship with Himself.  He has preserved His word throughout centuries, so that we might study Him and know Him.  This is a loving God.  

     Yet, we doubt His love constantly.  We ask ourselves, if not out loud, “How could a loving God give me this husband?”  “How could a loving God allow my mother to die of cancer?”  “How could a loving God allow a tornado or flood to wipe out thousands of people?”  How could a loving God put me in an unloving family for my childhood?”  “How could a loving God allow me to suffer so long?”   We tend to look at our circumstances to define God’s love, rather than look at scripture and interpret our circumstances through the truth that God reveals about Himself in His word.

God’s love is covenantal

    In Jeremiah 31:3 God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”  God’s love is everlasting because He is everlasting in character.  His love is based on who He is, not who you are.  Deuteronomy 7:6-9 shows us that God’s love was set on us by His choosing.  We cannot lose His love because we did nothing to earn it or deserve it to begin with.  

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”  (Deuteronomy 7:6-9)

God’s love is covenantal love.  He swears by His own name that He will love His people.  When our circumstances tempt us to question and doubt God’s love, we must go to His word and renew our minds in the amazing faithfulness of His love.  His love is set on us by His purpose, and nothing can thwart His purpose.  (Job 42:2).

God’s love is compassionate

     God’s love is not only everlasting, it is compassionate and gentle.  Psalm 91 is a beautiful picture of His love as protection and refuge in times of distress. 

 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.  For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge, his faithfulness is a shield and buckler” (vs 1-4).  

God paints a picture of Himself as a bird with large wings which He uses to protect His young and vulnerable children.  He covers us in His love and promises that nothing can harm us in the eyes of eternity.  Isaiah 40:11 draws a picture of God as the Good Shepherd protecting His sheep under his arm and carrying a wounded lamb next to His warmth.  God does not promise that we will be free from experiencing hardships and trials.  In fact, much of scripture tells us that all true children of God will experience suffering and persecution.  However, God’s love is gentle and protecting.  His love is a refuge and shelter in those times of hurting.  When we feel like our circumstances have taken us out of God’s loving care, we must go back to His word and who He reveals Himself to be.  God is the protector and keeper of our souls - our eternal being that will be with Him forever.  He is holding our salvation and eternity in the shelter of His wing and under the refuge of His arm.  Your feelings are not real.  Your thoughts determine how you will respond to your hardships.  Set your mind on the Truth.  God’s love is gentle, protecting, and compassionate.

God’s love on the cross

     Nowhere do we see God’s amazing love more on display than on the cross.  Even before ever getting to the cross, Jesus endured injurious treatment.  Matthew 27 tells us “they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.  And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!”  And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.  And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the rove and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him” (vs 27-30).  Why did a loving God allow His Son to endure such treatment?  First and foremost because He is displaying His glory - the beauty of His character in holiness, righteousness, mercy, grace, justice, wrath, love.  He is zealous for His glory but when we are in Christ, our good is tied to His glory.  Jesus suffered and died because it glories Him and we see that in His love for us!  On the cross, the crowd and soldiers continue to mock him and falsely accuse Him of lying and blasphemy.  Jesus experiences the ultimate suffering when He cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Here we would be tempted to question God’s love if we were the ones on the cross.  Yet, Jesus commits His Spirit to His Father and willingly dies to fulfill the will of God.  God’s love for Jesus, and us, kept Jesus on the cross for three hours.  God loved Jesus (“This is my Son, whom I love”) and us so much that he ordained Jesus to suffer and die in our place (Acts 2:23).  Jesus endured the complete wrath of God for our sins.  God determined how much and how long Jesus’ suffering would be because He loved Jesus completely.  Jesus knew that “the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2) to glorify God and be in His Father’s presence was worth it.  Jesus trusted His Father completely that this was the way to victory and, in Jesus’ case, re-uniting with the Father. Why three hours?  God does not reveal everything to us (Deuteronomy 29:29).  You can be sure that whatever the length of your suffering, it is the right duration.  God loves us so much, that He purposed Jesus to suffer beyond description, so that we could be united with Him through faith by grace.  When the temptation to doubt God’s love and care for you comes, stop and think about the cross.  Think about God choosing His Son, whom He loves, to suffer the entirety of God’s wrath on Himself, to rescue you from eternal separation from Him.  There can be no doubt of the genuine, strong love of God in the face of the cross.

God’s love is for your sake

     One of the hardest times to trust God’s love is when a trial is continuing on for a length of time and you start to despair that God has forgotten you.  John 11 is my favorite view of God’s unusual way to love us.  Here, Jesus is across the Jordan doing ministry with His disciples.  Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is sick.  Twice, within three verses, scripture mentions that these are people Jesus loved (vs 3 and 5).  Yet, when Jesus hears that someone He loves is sick, He doesn’t rush to Lazarus’ side to heal him.  John 11:5-6 says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”  What?!  Jesus loved them.  How could a loving God not rush to their sides to immediately take care of the situation and remove the suffering?  God has already provided the answer in verse 4.  “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it”.  Jesus loved them TOO much to rescue them immediately from this suffering.  He has greater plans for them to simply live a comfortable and easy life.  Verse 15 says, “and for your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”  Wow!  Could it be that your suffering is FOR YOUR SAKE?  Could it be that God loves you too much to cut your suffering short and not allow it to produce in you all that is meant to?  Could it be that God loves too much to end the trial before you give Him glory?  God knows that true joy and life are found only in glorifying Him.  Your trial, your difficult situation, is for your sake.  It is designed by the love of God, SO THAT you may believe, give glory to God, and find true joy.  

     And then, Jesus acts.  We see Jesus “deeply moved” in verse 38.  Jesus hears the doubt of his friends and their questioning of His motives and He is grieved for their hearts and souls.  Jesus is FOR us.  And that means that He does whatever it takes to reveal His glory and draw us to Himself because as we delight in Him, we glorify Him. It is all linked to His love.  Jesus cares about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and He cares about you.   He was moved by compassion.  Jesus was affected by the doubts, questions,  pain, and sadness of those He loved.  He then acts on their behalf.  He calls Lazarus out of the grave, just as He will call us out of the grave for eternity.  We will rise when He calls us home, too.  God’s love is compassionate.  God is standing outside of time looking through the lens of eternity.  The situation with Lazarus was playing a bigger role from that eternal perspective than just a family hurting over the death of a loved one.  Your suffering is playing a bigger role in the perspective of eternity than you can see.  It will take trust and faith in God, and in His love, to endure joyfully and trust His love.

Your response to God’s love

     God’s love is not in question.  That circumstance, that broken relationship, that illness, that trial that has gone on for years and years, is evidence of God’s love for you.  Will you trust Him?  Will you give thanks to God that He loves you too much to cut the suffering short?  Will you thank Him for not rushing to rescue you immediately because He has something greater planned?

     God’s love is beyond description and, frankly, beyond understanding.  But God makes Himself known in His Word.  Dig in.  Feast on the amazing love of God as revealed by Him.

This is How He Carries You

by Lauren Washer

It’s too much, Lord. I can’t count the number of times I’ve uttered some form of these words. Sometimes I whisper through my tears and other times I scribble furiously onto the pages of my journal—early morning thoughts after news of another hardship. Another friend’s suffering. My own difficult circumstances. A world in physical, emotional, and spiritual upheaval.

I imagine you can relate. The weight feels unbearable. You try to muster up strength, but you can’t. Weak and weary, you wonder if you’ll have what it takes to survive what’s in front of you. We fear we’ll be consumed by our grief. We can’t see how there could possibly be enough grace.

Can I make it, Lord? Will they? 

These are the questions I bring to the Lord when I know I—and those around me—don’t seem to have enough resilience or strength to endure the hardship we’re facing. And do you know what the Lord continues to remind me? It’s not up to me.

Our ability to endure suffering is completely dependent upon God’s power at work within us. He walks beside us, wipes our tears, comforts us in our sorrow, and leads us through the darkest valleys. 

But sometimes—even when we know what’s true—we don’t always feel it. So, if you’re struggling to believe God is with you in whatever you’re facing right now, I hope you find comfort in these words. Because whether we feel it or not, we have the promise of God’s presence.

In the book of Deuteronomy we find Moses’ final words to God’s people before they cross over to the Promised Land. As Moses recounts their experiences, he says something I’ve never been able to forget. Recounting the people’s rebellion against God, and the subsequent consequence of wandering in the wilderness for forty years, Moses reminded them:

“…and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place” (Deuteronomy 1:31).

God was with them those forty years. He provided for their needs. He gave Moses the wisdom to appoint leaders when the burden of leadership became too difficult. God went before them in a cloud and fire. All the way, God carried them.

God is still faithful to carry his people.

This is how he carries you.

//

I walk into the kitchen to begin prepping dinner when I see a truck beside our front gate. Before the doorbell rings, I step out onto the porch and call to my neighbor. She turns around, a large box in her arms. Before a hello even escapes my lips, she says:

“I just didn’t think you should make dinner tonight.” My shoulders slump, I smile, tilt my head to the side, and look at her with tears brimming in my eyes. When I express my thanks, she simply says—in her delightful Aussie accent—, “It’s nothing,” and then scurries away to tend to her six week old baby.

This wasn’t the first time someone had brought us a meal. Between babies, deployments, and moves, we’ve been handed our fair share of family favorite casseroles. This one was different. My neighbor down the street is not a close friend. And yet, there she was, on my front porch, bringing me a meal. 

I was continually surprised during Bradley’s recent deployment by the ways God carried us. Food, encouraging texts, free meals from the public school, friends who would pop over mid-afternoon, gift cards in the mail, and pizza delivered to the front door. On the days when I felt like I couldn’t bear the weight any longer, God would send a gift to bolster my weary soul.

God loves to surprise his people. For forty years he rained bread from heaven to sustain his people in the wilderness. He made water come from a rock when they were thirsty, and twice parted huge bodies of water so they could go where he sent them. 

If you’re wobbling beneath a heavy load, be patient. Wait expectantly. Pay attention.

God carries you through unexpected provisions.

//

I shift the toddler to my other hip and steady her while I pull my mask back over my face. We’re singing the final song at the end of the service and tears begin to pool in my eyes. I look to my left, then to my right. The older couple whose granddaughter just died. A family from our community group. New people I’ve yet to meet. My dear friend who listened to me pour out my heart at the beach the other day.

Our pastor raises his hands and proclaims a benediction over his flock, and it’s in this moment, surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ, that I realize: this is necessary. In all her imperfections, through all of her shortcomings, despite all the ways she fails to live in a manner pleasing to the Lord—my spiritual family is essential to my faith. 

I can’t explain the phenomenon of gathering with other believers, but it’s powerful. We receive prayer, words of truth, reminders of God’s faithfulness. Our brothers and sisters comfort of us with the comfort they received in their own hardship. We lift our burdens to the Lord and shoulder the weight together.

God carries you through the Church.

//

We were sitting in a room to the side of the church auditorium, minutes before the service started. Grief-stricken over my brother’s sudden death, our family was dreading what we were about to face. But I’ll never forget the way Mom looked at us and shared her experience with God’s grace. She explained how over the past few days—when the next moment seemed impossible, when she wasn’t sure how God would sustain her in the overwhelming loss of her son—God’s grace would be there. Never early, never late. But he was giving it. Constantly. 

We want to know exactly how God will provide for our needs or reassure us of his presence. But we won’t always know and sometimes his presence won’t appear in tangible ways. I can’t explain the ways the Spirit upholds our souls, but he always does. He might bring a verse from our Bible study or a recent sermon to mind. A song enters our earbuds, speaking truth and comfort. Sometimes, our days go smoothly, the kids obey cheerfully, and we make it to bedtime without crumbling to the floor. And other days, when everything falls to pieces, somehow we don’t fall apart and the joy of the Lord bubbles up inside of us. 

God carries you by his grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

//

When the Israelites stood at the edge of the Promised Land, they were tired. They had wandered for forty years, Moses was about to die, and they were on the brink of battles to take the new land. Do you know what Moses said to them? Repeatedly? Obey God. Don’t forget his commands. Be careful to remember. Love and worship God, nothing else.

I find it helpful to notice what Moses didn’t say. He didn’t tell them to sit back, relax, and take care of themselves in whatever way felt good because, phew, after all that hardship, they sure deserved it.

Can I be honest with you? This is often what I would like to be told, especially when I’m weary. Can I just check out for a few minutes? Often times I do. I scroll Instagram rather than sitting down with my children at the end of the day. I’ll set aside a difficult task, because let’s face it: it’s been a long morning and I could use a few minutes to myself. Obviously there’s a place for rest; God also commanded a sabbath. But I’m talking about the temptation to relax our affections and turn them away from God. 

In the face of difficulties we can be tempted to think we deserve to satisfy our cravings however we want. So instead of engaging in rest carefully and handling self-care with wisdom, we indulge and forget to rest in Christ. This can result in a divided heart.

We’re not called to quit when life gets hard. God calls us to live lives of faithful endurance. So we take the next step. Do the work before us. Walk in love. Obey with joy. We tend to our souls with care and diligence. Fix our eyes on our eternal hope: Jesus. 

Perhaps this isn’t the most comforting way to end a blog post about God’s provision and presence, but it’s the truth. God demands our obedience. And we’ll want to abandon his call, look for satisfaction elsewhere, and place our affections on lesser things. But just as he persisted with his people throughout the Old Testament, God will keep wooing us back. He’ll remind us of Jesus. Jesus never wavered in his obedience, and he never gave up. His eyes were fixed on the joy of being reunited with his Father.

So too, we keep obeying. And somehow, as we live as though we’ve been changed by Christ, we’re changed in the process, and we grow to love Jesus more. 

God carries you through your obedience to him.

//

Dear weary sister, whatever you face today, tomorrow, or whatever continues to weigh you down from the past, God will carry you through it all. 

He’s not giving up or abandoning us. So lean into his strength. Rest in God’s power. Trust in the One who loved us enough to carry the weight of our sin on his shoulders. He bore the fullness of God’s wrath on the cross so we could be set free. Rejoice that even now Jesus is carrying us before the throne of grace, interceding on our behalf before the Father. Cling to the promise of his love which will never let you go. 

Hold onto the Living Hope who guards you until you obtain fullness with Christ. He will carry you all the way to your eternal home in heaven.

This is how he carries you.

For further study and reflection, consider the following verses:

Psalm 46
Isaiah 43:1-4
Romans 8:18-39
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Hebrews 7:22-25
James 1:1-15
1 Peter 1:3-9

Posted at: http://laurenwasher.com/this-is-how-he-carries-you/

Idolatry: A Right View of God's Love

Dave Jenkins

In Exodus 3:14, God says, “I am who I am.” Such a declaration is powerful because the Lord God was declaring not only who He is at His absolute essence, but also declaring to the world, “I am the only God!” As we fast forward to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ declares seven times, “I Am!” in the Gospel of John. In Leviticus 11:44-46, we are taught that God is holy, meaning He is set apart. In 1st Peter 1:13-15, we are taught that as a result of God’s holiness, He requires Christians to live holy lives. Gaining a right understanding of the love of God requires a biblical understanding of His holiness. The matter of understanding the holiness and love of God is so serious because, if we get His holiness wrong, we diminish and undermine His character. If we get the love of God wrong, then we have a God who will crush humanity in judgment, not love us through Christ alone.

The Love of God and the Christian Faith

In the book of 1st John, the Apostle John roots the assurance of the Christian using the interplay between external evidence and the internal testimony of grace. To abide in Christ is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit at work in the Christian. The Holy Spirit provides assurance that the people of God belong to Jesus, but never operates apart from outward evidence of faith. The presence of the Holy Spirit is discerned both by His internal testimony and by obedience to the commands of Jesus given through His apostles (1st John 4:6).

Some of the other commands of John include belief in the Son Jesus (1st John 3:23; 4:1-5) and love for one another as Christians (1st John 3:23). Love, to John, is a critical mark of the Christian who has genuine faith. Those who have not been born of God do not know God, nor can they know that “God is love” (1st John 4:8). Love is essential to the nature of God. Those who have become partakers of the new nature (2nd Peter 1:4) are the people of God. They alone increasingly reflect the holy and loving character of God and love others. The transformed hearts of Christians respond to the call of God to love one another.

John is addressing those in 1st John who thought love made God too personal. Many today follow along with John’s original audience believing “God is love”, but do not believe what the Bible teaches about the rest of God’s character. Such people often recoil at the idea that the way to heaven is narrow (Matthew 7:13-14) and restricted by Christ only through Him (John 14:6; Acts 4:14).

When Christians speak of the love of God, we are not minimizing the other characteristics of God. For example, the simplicity of God tells us the love of God never operates apart from the holiness, mercy, omnipotence, justice, or other divine attributes. It is loving, therefore, to seek justice and demand holiness, but never to do so at the expense of mercy. Christians need the help of God and the wisdom He provides to apply His love into every phase of our lives.

THE LOVE OF GOD AND HIS DISCIPLINE

Within God’s perfect love is the reality that God chastens those whom He loves. Hebrews 12:5-7 reminds us, “You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?”

Christians should both expect and embrace the discipline God gives them. The divine discipline of God is intended to help the people of God grow in a relationship with our heavenly Father. Revelation 3:19 states, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”

Throughout the book of Proverbs, Solomon speaks about a father disciplining and correcting their children out of love. To the biblical writers, rejecting correction from the Lord God is to walk in the way of foolishness and wickedness. To walk in the light according to the biblical writers, is to accept correction, repent, and become wise. Such Christians understand that the loving embrace of God involves the guiding rod and staff wielded by the Chief Shepherd, Jesus.

THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE JEALOUS GOD

In Exodus 34:14, we find the command, “Worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” John Frame in Systematic Theology explains, “God’s jealousy is not inconsistent with his love or goodness. On the contrary, his jealousy is part of his love.”

THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE CHRISTIAN’S SECURITY

In Romans 8:31-39, Paul writes about the love of God and how down to the nanosecond the Christian is held secure in His sovereign hands. Only those who are truly Christ’s will be held until the end, for they have true faith in Him. Times of doubt may come, and the storms of life may assail them, but if we belong to Christ, we are held by Him and will belong to Him always. Such biblical truth should cause Christians to draw near humbly to the throne of God to know and grow in the love of God.

Posted at: https://servantsofgrace.org/idolatry-and-getting-a-right-understanding-of-gods-love/

The Glory of Jesus Displayed in Us

Davis Wetherell

I have been reading through the Gospel of John, and I have been reflecting on two stories that particularly highlight the glory of Jesus. And I’d like to share them with you also.

Story #1: Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

This story is recorded in John 9. You may recognize the conversation between Jesus and His disciples as they saw a blind man:

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2-3)

Jesus then goes on to heal the man by anointing his eyes with mud and telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. He does this is able to see again!

This causes quite the scene for people who knew him. Everyone knew he was blind, and now they are trying to account for how he has come to see again. The Pharisees catch wind of this going on, and so they go to question him. The once-blind man told them Jesus healed him, but they don’t believe it.

The Pharisees don’t even believe that he was ever blind! So they go to the man’s parents’ house, and his parents do confirm that the man was born blind (John 9:18-23).

The Pharisees simply do not believe and question the man again. They say, “We know that this man [Jesus] is a sinner.” And the blind man responded, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” And the man continued on to testify to the Pharisees, saying:

“If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:33)

Story #2: Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead

We all may know that story of Jesus’s friend Lazarus. Lazarus died, and Jesus resurrected him from the dead. Clearly, we can already see some of the similar theological implications between being changed from blind to seeing and being raised from death to life.

But what struck me in my reading of the Gospel of John this time around was John 11:4. Now, Jesus had just been told that Lazarus was very ill. And Jesus responded:

“This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4)

Compare that to John 9:3! Both the blind man and Lazarus went through suffering so that God would be glorified.

More to the Story

Now, there’s more to the story. If we jump to John 12, we see that Jesus is with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus again, and Jesus and Lazarus are “reclining . . . at the table” (12:2). What a remarkable conversation they must have been having!

Remember what has happened up to this point: Lazarus gets ill, dies, and Jesus raises him from the dead in front of a large crowd. That large crowd, upon hearing that Jesus is back with Lazarus, is keen to see what will happen next. And they “continued to bear witness” about Jesus’s miracle (12:17).

The Pharisees are interested too because they still do not believe Jesus is the Messiah. They even sentence Lazarus to death because of his involvement with Jesus (John 12:10). Poor Lazarus!

When Jesus then arrives in Jerusalem the next day, a large crowd “took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna!'” (John 12:13). Why did they go there to meet him? Well, because they heard from all their friends and neighbors that Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead (12:18).

And the Pharisees could not stop people from praising Jesus’s name. They had to listen to it. They had to hear it. But they rejected him still, saying, “Look, the world has gone after him” (12:19).

You’ll Be Surprised at How God Uses Your Suffering

These stories show us that you never know how the sufferings in your life will work to glorify Jesus. If the blind man was never blind, then his friends and family would have never known the glory of Jesus Christ. If Lazarus had never died, the large crowd would not have shown up to begin what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday.

But these stories also show us that your sufferings may not touch the person you think is most likely to see the glory of Jesus. The Pharisees had read the Scriptures, they knew the signs to look for, it was their whole life to wait for the Messiah–and they rejected Him.

So, Christian, pray for others. Pray that God would use your trial, your suffering, to bring others to know His glory.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/02/glory-jesus-displayed-us/

Read the Bible with Your Heart

Jon Bloom

We cannot truly read the Bible without patient and rigorous engagement of our minds. That’s probably obvious to us. But we will not have read it well, not as God intended us to read it, without eager, even relentless, engagement of our hearts. It requires more faith, effort, prayer, humility, vulnerability, and often time to read God’s word with our hearts, but that’s because the heart is precisely where God wants his word to land.

What does it mean to read the Bible with your heart? Before I explain, I’ll point to an example, because a good example is often a great explainer. And the example comes from the Bible itself.

With My Whole Heart

Psalm 119 is a (long) song of wholehearted love and desire for God. And if you read it with an engaged mind, you’ll hear the psalmist sing of how and why he received God’s word with a relentlessly, even desperately, engaged heart. It’s worth reading the whole psalm, but here are a few tastes:

• “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart” (Psalm 119:2).

• “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (Psalm 119:10).

• “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34).

• “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

• “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors” (Psalm 119:24).

• “I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:47–48).

When we read Psalm 119, two truths are unmistakable: the word of God is for the heart of man, and the way to the heart is through the mind.

Treasure to Be Loved

In Luke 10:27, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, where Moses says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Any time, however, the Gospels record Jesus quoting this text (see also Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30), Jesus adds the word mind, which Moses didn’t include. Perhaps this is because the Hebrew hearers of Moses’s day understood implicitly that affections included reason, while the Greco-influenced mixed crowds of Jesus’s day needed the clarification.

“We read the Bible with our minds to see the glory of God, and with our hearts to savor the glory of God.”TweetShare on Facebook

Whatever Jesus’s reason for adding “mind,” it is clear that both reason and affections are crucial to loving God. But there is a hierarchy. God wants our hearts, because, as Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). God is not merely an idea to be pondered, but a person to be loved — the supreme treasure to be supremely treasured.

God’s way to our affections (heart) is through our understanding (mind). So, when we read the Bible, we read it with our hearts engaged, because God’s word is primarily for our hearts.

Read to See Glory

As Christians, we rightly stress the importance of reading the Bible. In stressing this importance, however, we can easily fall into a subtle, deceptive misunderstanding of why it’s important. The subtle misunderstanding goes something like this: if we read the Bible regularly, God will be pleased with us, and therefore we can expect his blessing. As if the act of reading, rather than the purpose of reading, warrants God’s favor.

What’s deceptive about this is that it bears such a close resemblance to the truth. Regular, disciplined reading of the Bible is a means of great blessing from God. But not because performing the act of reading merits his favor. If we read the Bible this way, it’s not much different than the Muslim who practices the disciplines of the Five Pillars to merit Allah’s favor. This is apparently how many leaders in Jesus’s day approached the Scriptures. Listen to Jesus’s rebukes:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27–28).

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39–40)

“God is not merely an idea to be pondered, but a person to be loved.”TweetShare on Facebook

God is not interested in our Bible reading as some kind of ritual to perform as proof of our piety. He wants us to read the Bible so that we will see him! God wants us to see his glory, again and again.

The Bible is where the most important glories of the triune God shine brightest and clearest — especially the glory of Jesus Christ (John 1:14), who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and through whom comes “grace and truth” (John 1:17).

This makes the Bible itself shine with a peculiar glory, worth mining deeply because of the priceless wealth it contains. As John Piper says,

In all the details and particulars of what we find in the Bible — Old Testament and New — the aim of reading is always to see the worth and beauty of God. Notice that I say “in all the details and particulars.” There is no other way to see the glory. God’s greatness does not float over the Bible like a gas. It does not lurk in hidden places separate from the meaning of words and sentences. It is seen in and through the meaning of texts. (Reading the Bible Supernaturally, 96)

God’s glory is seen in and through the meaning of texts. That’s why we pray, “Make me understand the way of your precepts” (Psalm 119:27). Because understanding God’s word is the means of God’s word getting stored up in our hearts (Psalm 119:11).

Don’t Read Just to See

God wants our hearts in Bible reading, not just the attention of our minds. As important as seeing God’s glory is, it’s not enough. God wants us to see his glory so that we will savor his glory. And “if there is no true seeing of the glory of God, there can be no true savoring of the glory of God” (96). Charles Spurgeon said it this way:

Certainly, the benefit of reading must come to the soul by the way of the understanding. . . . The mind must have illumination before the affections can properly rise towards their divine object. . . . There must be knowledge of God before there can be love to God: there must be a knowledge of divine things, as they are revealed, before there can be an enjoyment of them. (100)

The “love to God” and “an enjoyment of divine things” are what God most wants us to experience as a result of reading our Bibles, and neither happens without knowledge. Knowledge is for the sake of love and joy.

“The word of God is for the heart of man. And the way to the heart of man is through the mind of man.”TweetShare on Facebook

When I said the word of God is for the heart of man, I meant it is for, to borrow from the hymn, the “joy of every longing heart.” Bible reading “in all the details and particulars” is frequently rigorous work. It can be quite difficult. At times it can even be disturbing. When we deal with the Bible, we’re dealing with the infinite and mysterious mind of God. His thoughts are not our thoughts; his ways not our ways (Isaiah 55:8–9). But ultimately, if we really understand why God has given us a Book, reading his word becomes a hedonistic pursuit. What we’re after is the pleasure our souls are designed to enjoy most: the savoring of God’s glory.

Read Until You See and Savor

Those who have known God best, and loved him most, have understood the crucial importance of savoring God deeply through seeing God clearly in his word.

George Müller, when reflecting on his remarkable, demanding life of prayerful dependence on God for the sake of the Bristol orphans, recalled an important moment early in his ministry: “I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord” (100). He was speaking about his daily, disciplined Bible reading and prayer each morning. This was his oasis of refreshment. Time in the word functioned like a ballast keeping his ship upright in a life of significant stress and at times turbulent storms. “Unless some unusual obstacle hindered him, he would not rise from his knees until sight had become savoring” (100).

George Müller read the Bible like the psalmist who wrote Psalm 119: with a rigorously engaged mind and a relentlessly engaged heart. And so must we. We read the Bible with our minds to see the glory of God, and with our hearts to savor the glory of God. We pass the Bible through our minds to store it in our hearts, because our hearts are with our treasure. And if possible, we don’t stop looking until our hearts are “happy in the Lord” — until we feel fresh joy in some aspect of who God is and what he has done for us in Christ.

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as author, board chair, and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/read-the-bible-with-your-heart