Teach me, Lord, that my use of the Bible itself can be a great stumbling block to me. The Pharisees were great students of the Old Testament; humanly speaking, they knew it as well as Jesus Himself. But what a difference! They were hung up on clouded meanings, empty traditions, and picky interpretations, whereas He spoke with “authority” (Matthew 7:29).
The fault was not in their hearing. They were constantly bombarded with the Word, from infancy to old age. It was read, preached, and externalized in every facet of their lives. Yet they were whitened graves “full of dead men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27). God save me from a fate like that!
Save me also, Father, from their fatal error: they did not mix the Word “with faith” (Hebrews 4:2, KJV). To hear the Word of God is not enough, though certainly necessary. I must mix what I hear with faith, I must believe it to be truth, and finally I must obey what it tells me to do.
The universe is full of radio signals. But only when I turn on my radio and pick up the frequency do I receive a message. God’s Word is full of continually emitted signals intended for me personally, but only as I am tuned in does the message ever penetrate my being. God is saying something to me right now from His Word about that personal need or problem, but I keep cloying the message by getting hung up on Greek words, theological meanings, archaeological evidence, and historical data. Sometimes.I feel that God wants to shake me, as Moody used to shake his audiences by saying: “Listen! I’ve got a message for you and I want you to hear it!”
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).
Lord, You are the God of the now, and Your Word is Your message of the now. I will not tune You out, Lord; I will tune myself and the world out, and I will listen to Your personal message to me right now.
Daily with the King 