More to Learn (Friday Devotional)

 

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

The other night, I sat down to read a chapter from the Bible with the kids, as we do most nights before bed. We recently started Genesis, so that night’s reading was chapter 7, the story of Noah building an ark to spare him, his family, and a sampling of the earth’s animals from the great flood God was bringing. I had only read a couple of verses when Katherine interrupted me with a question: “Daddy, I already know this story, so do I have to listen while you read it?”

It occurs to me that her question, with all its innocent bluntness, is one which believers, especially those who have known the Lord for a long while, probably sympathize with. While most Christians have their blind spots when it comes to biblical literacy—I have yet to meet a lay person well-versed in Nahum or Jude—there are likely stories, passages, and even whole books of the Bible that you feel like you know backwards and forwards.

So when you turn to Psalm 23 in your reading plan, when the pastor preaches from Romans, or when Easter rolls around and you’re reading the gospel accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection once again, the natural reaction is to close your ears and turn your brain off. Surely there’s nothing new to learn, no teaching you haven’t heard a million times before, no new insight to be gleaned.

If the Bible was just any old book, you would probably be right about that—there’s a limit to how much you can derive from War and Peace or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But the Bible is more than just literature, more than just a library of interesting stories, pithy proverbs, and helpful teachings. Scripture is God-breathed; its writings are divinely inspired—it is more than just a good book, it is the Good Book.

The amazing thing, indeed, the supernatural thing about the Bible is that it is living and active, meaning that God never stops speaking to us through it. When you read it, you may not pick up a new piece of trivia, but if you have ears to hear, you will learn something. God constantly reveals himself through the study of his Word, just as he does through prayer, through worship, etc.

So don’t come to Scripture with an arrogant heart or a closed mind, convinced you have nothing left to learn. God’s not done with you yet, and he still has plenty to teach you through his Word.