You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent. You pore over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have eternal life. John 5:38-40 HCSB
I talk a lot about the importance of Bible study, prayer, and church attendance. I want you to understand that each and every one of these components are an important part of the life of a believer. We must understand, though, that there is one way to salvation and eternal life. This is through Christ alone. Jesus plus nothing equals salvation which equals eternal life spent in glory with God the Father. This scripture passage touched my heart today and I ask that you carefully read it so that you have a good understanding of what Jesus is saying here.
Just because we read scripture doesn’t mean that His word is living inside of us. If God’s holy word was living inside of us, we would be obedient. We would live our lives according to scripture. We would pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We would never repay evil for evil, but would leave vengeance up to God (Romans 12:17-19). We would attend church regularly so as to meet with like minded believers to study God’s word and praise Him (Hebrews 10:24). We would love the Lord with our whole heart and love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). In other words, we would be a living illustration of God’s holy word. My pastor always says that we may be the only bible some people will ever read.
Our scripture passage says we don’t allow God’s word to live through us because we don’t believe the One He sent. If you read the Bible, you know all scripture from Genesis to Revelation points to Christ. It’s a testimony of His love for us. Many people say that they believe in Jesus, but live as though they’ve never heard of Him. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then you will live as though you do. You will understand His awesome power. You will not fear because you will understand that He is right there with you. You will understand the awesome love He has for us (John 15:13). Once you understand all these things, you won’t be able to get enough of Him. You will want to study His word. You will want to spend time in prayer with Him. You will want to go into His house to praise Him. Psalm 122:1 says, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the LORD.” Believing in Him doesn’t mean just saying we believe, it means taking time to get to really know Him. You can’t appreciate all this if you don’t really know Him. I know this from personal experience. I spent many years of my life saying I believed, but living as though I didn’t even know Him. But once I surrendered to Him and really got to know Him, I was eager to spend time with Him through Bible study, prayer and church attendance.
God’s word is an important part of our relationship with Him. But just reading the bible won’t do it. We have to study His word. We have to live out His word in our speech and in our actions. We can pore over the scripture and read the Bible for hours each day, but if we aren’t willing to come to Him, it’s a waste of time.
What does He mean by coming to Him? Well I can explain this because I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt. For many years I attended church when it was convenient. I read my Bible when I was in church and of course I would pull it out when chaos and turmoil would enter my life. I used prayer as a 911. But I was afraid to come to Him if it meant giving up the sin in my life. I thought that I needed this fun stuff to relieve the stress in my life. But it would be good for a while, and then lead to drama. I always felt as though I needed something more. When I came to God, I began to see that only He could fill that void in my life. Only He could give me the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
Once we truly understand the goodness of God, we want to give our all to come to Him. I thought I had come to Him when I was 12 and was baptized, but then life got in the way. Ten years ago, I truly came to Him and gave it all over to Him. Letting Him run things was the best decision I ever made. It has freed me to serve Him.
Is something holding you back from coming to Him? Whatever it is, it’s not worth it. Come to Him today. You will be so glad you did!
Have a great day!