Good evangelicals, after all, are happy to take inspired apostles at their word.
But does our approach to our Bibles tell a different story? Do we act as if Numbers or Kings or Nahum has the power to infuse our lives with help and hope?
Whenever you open your Bible, labor to believe that God has something here to say to me. Whatever I encounter in his Word was written with me, his cherished child, in view. So pursue God’s graces on the pages of Scripture this new year.
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow everywhere await.
5. Don’t Turn a Means of Grace Into a Means of Merit
Your Father’s love for you doesn’t rise and fall with your quiet times.
If you are united to Jesus by faith, the verdict is out, and the court is dismissed. You’re as accepted and embraced as the Son himself. Period.
To be sure, you’ll desire to hear and follow his voice if you’re truly one of his sheep (John 10:1-30). Not always and not perfectly, of course, but sincerely and increasingly.
So as another year dawns, and this New Year begins, commit yourself anew to becoming a man or woman of the Word. But don’t overextend, do it alone, just do it whenever, live as if Paul lied, or treat means of grace like means of merit.
Your Bible is one of God’s chief gifts to you in 2020.
Open, read, ruminate and obey.
May you be ever transformed in the New Year into the image of our incarnate King, and may he alone receive the acclaim.
