Perhaps one reason why I believe the Bible to be true is its endless ability to speak volumes through one short verse. Not only this, but as we grow and mature and as our lives change, God’s Spirit helps us to see new meaning in old verses.
For example, I read a verse like Colossians 1:17 and have to pause to think about it. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. “
There are times when life gets rough or uncertain, and there are times when things seem to be going so well no amount of praise seems to do justice. No matter the external circumstances, there is a lot of comfort in knowing that Christ holds all things together. If He is holding all things together, I don’t need to worry about the future. I don’t need to wonder whether things will work out the way I want them to. Even in the midst of pain or hard times, Christ is somehow working all things together for good, although this good may only be realized in heaven.
Not only that, but He is before all things. He existed before even time began, and He knows what is going to happen in our lives before we do. I’ve found that if I pray about the future, He will often give me guidance where it’s most needed. He knows the direction my life is to go and He can direct me there in the way that seems best to Him.
I think about the Israelites in the wilderness. If they had put their complete trust in God in the beginning, as they left Pharaoh, would God have led them on a more direct route to the promised land? How often do I not follow God’s commands and end up taking some circuitous route only because He has to teach me some hard-learned lesson?
Somehow, all of these verses and issues and questions seem to come back to one solution, which sounds easy but in practice is actually rather difficult: reading Scripture and prayer. I can see why they call these “spiritual disciplines” because they take the discipline it would take an athlete to train to win an event.
So…starting out with one little verse, God has managed to redirect my heart and soul to Him and maybe now I’ll take the time to read more of His word and spend time communicating with Him before drifting off to sleep.
1 comment:
It is so true that God can reveal different things to us when we read the same verse at different times. As I've continually been reading the scriptures, I'll come across verses that I underlined during a past read-through... and I'll have to stop and think... "now why did I underline that verse?" And then I'll remember what was going on in my life at that time and what truths I was discovering about God, and it's just amazing to look at where I WAS, and where I've COME and how those verses take on new meaning, new significance and yet there are DIFFERENT verses in the same chapter/section that I would underline today.
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