Passion For The Word
November 2022 |
Passion is often described as a powerful emotion or an apparent endless supply of enthusiasm over an activity, person, or object. Whether it’s sports, arts, or manual labor, having passion makes a noticeable difference. Does that transfer to God’s Word? Can we be passionate about God’s Word? I believe so.
When we read Psalm 119, it is evident that the author had a passion for God’s statutes, laws, and Word. How about you? Do you have passion for the Word of God?
How Do I Know That I’m Passionate About God’s Word?
Those who are passionate cherish the time they spend reading its holy pages. They read it not because it is expected of a child of God, but because they genuinely desire to partake of the written manna from heaven. Let’s hear about the pleasure God’s Word brought the psalmist, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps. 119:103).
It’s More Than A Book
The Bible is a love letter from our heavenly Father. It reveals the heartbeat of God for the lost as well as His beloved children. It instructs, challenges, confronts, comforts, and guides our path if we allow it to. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps. 119:105).
Inspiration
The Bible is divinely inspired and yet scribed by man’s hands. The literal interpretation of the word inspired is “God-breathed.” The Spirit of God spoke to man what He wanted recorded and then guided him in the selection of the vocabulary used. God says in His Word more than twenty-five hundred times, “God said,” “the Lord has said,” “thus saith the Lord,” and so on. The Bible is the Word of God and does not merely contain the Word of God. If this were not true, then we would feel a liberty to pick and choose what is and what is not His Word saying, “This we’ll live by, and this we’ll ignore.”
Inerrancy Of Scripture
The doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture states that in the original autograph form, God’s Word is without error. I can be passionate about the Bible because I know that God has watched over His Word over the centuries. We can trust a good word-for-word translation of the Bible.
Illumination
When reading the Bible, we need to remember a very important doctrine called the doctrine of illumination. This is when God gives man an understanding of what He has placed in His Word. Psalm 119:26-27 says, “I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.”
When we read God’s Word, we need to begin by asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate God’s Word to us.
The Christocentric Theme
The Christocentric theme of the Bible is a scarlet thread woven by the Spirit of God from Genesis through to the closing pages of the book of Revelation. Every book of the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ historically, prophetically, or in typology. I see the cross in the ram that was caught in the thicket, the first Passover, the brazen altar, the pole with the brazen serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness to save lives, and more. The passionate reader delights to see the Christ throughout the Scriptures.
Lord Make Us Passionate
Lord, make us passionate toward your Word. Help us to understand the need we have for it, the blessings you promise for reading it, the compassion it has to comfort us, and the power it has to transform us. Show us Jesus.
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