Passively Resisting God’s Blessings
One of the greatest challenges we face as Christians is trying to understand why we passively resist the many blessings of God. For example, we know that prayer is good and right, but we don’t want to do it. In this case, we entertain right thoughts about prayer, but our hearts often lag behind those thoughts. In other cases, the problem may actually be the way we’re thinking about things. It’s not so much that we’re thinking wrongly, but we may be thinking incompletely. I suspect this is a key problem we face when encountering Scripture. We believe that it is truth and revelation and authority and source (and so on), but these prevailing thoughts about it do not generate the kind of passion for it that we know is appropriate.
I have become increasingly convinced that some of our resistance to the Bible is rooted in our failure to really see it for what it is fundamentally: a gift. Because it comes from God, we undoubtedly feel obligated to it. But do we view Scripture as grace from God, a gift given for our earthly and eternal happiness? What we perceive we are receiving from God in Scripture can really shape how we feel about reading and submitting to it.
Good God, Good Word
The psalmist writes of God, “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes” (Ps. 119:68). God’s goodness is expressed in his teaching the psalmist his laws. God’s statutes are not seen merely as an expression of his role as just lawgiver, but also as kind Lord. Scripture is an extension of God’s loving presence.
This truth is expressed in another psalm that celebrates God’s protection from enemies. Here, the psalmist proclaims, “In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid” (Ps. 56:10–11). At first glance, this is a strange and unexpected coupling of items. It begins normally: when I am afraid, I put my trust in God. Then, rather than praising the Lord who rescued him, he repeats three times: I praise God’s word (Ps. 56:4, 10)! Clearly, for the psalmist, the goodness of God and the goodness of Scripture go hand-in-hand.
Twenty warm, engaging readings, based primarily on Psalm 119, encourage regular meditation on God’s gifts in Scripture—including blessedness, hope, and peace—as well as warnings and wisdom that bring repentance.
The First Helvetic Confession—an early Reformed statement of faith—declares, “The principle intent of all canonical Scripture is that God wishes to be good to mankind.”1 The goodness of God is the chief motivation for the Bible’s existence. In a later Reformed confession, we find words that feel like a statement of doctrine and exclamation of praise rolled into one:
God, the Supreme Judge, not only took care to have his word, which is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes” (Rom 1:16), committed to writing by Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles, but has also watched and cherished it with paternal care from the time it was written up to the present, so that it could not be corrupted by craft of Satan or fraud of man. Therefore the Church justly ascribes to it his singular grace and goodness that she has, and will have to the end of the world (2 Pet 1:19), a “sure word of prophecy” and “Holy Scriptures” (2 Tim 3:15).2
God, as not only a judge but also a loving Father, cherishes and watches over his word in order to preserve his saving gospel. This kind paternal act is described as a display of his “singular grace and goodness.”
What Makes You So Special?
To pull things together, let me take us to the plains of Moab. Moses is preparing the people of Israel to enter the promised land. As part of the preparation, he sees it as necessary to remind them of what makes them so unique and blessed among the nations. I think this is an instructive and powerful reminder for us. He says:
For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? (Deut 4:7–8)
Unlike the other nations, Israel had a God who was not fickle or distant; he was a faithful and near presence to them, ever desiring to respond to their prayers. But he was also a God who gave them good laws—statutes that were in themselves righteous but that also enabled them to live upright lives. One commentator writes, “A ‘righteous’ decree, in short, is one that leads to and maintains proper covenant relationship.”3 God gives his word to his people because he wants to be near his people. His presence—his personal and verbal presence—is what makes them who they are. God’s personal and verbal presence are the unique treasures given to his treasured possession (Ex. 19:6; Deut. 7:6). It is no less true for us. God and his word together are our crown, our distinctive glory as his people. Do we believe this?
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Love Songs to Scripture
Unless we believe this, we will not be able to make sense of Bible passages that praise God’s word, let alone Scripture’s grandiose, 176-verse love song to God’s word: Psalm 119. We won’t understand why hymn writers pen songs like:
Oh, wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!
The lamp that our Father above
So kindly has lighted to teach us the way
That leads to the arms of his love!4
Or,
Well Thy works proclaim Thee, Lord;
Better still Thy living Word
All of God that man can bear,
Shines in softened glory there.5
Yet, most important of all, unless we believe it we will have a hard time delighting in Scripture. Unless we fully embrace the goodness of God in the gift of Scripture, we may be prone to approaching Bible reading as a chore rather than a joy.
Cultivating Delight
Once our thinking is sound regarding Scripture, and we really do receive it as a gift, how do we train our hearts to catch up to our heads? In other words, how do we cultivate delight in the Scriptures?
Personalize the Bible.
We must regularly remind ourselves that, through Scripture, God is personally speaking to us because he wants to grant us gift upon gift. We need to remind ourselves that the Bible is a relational book through which God is extending his hand to us over and over again—to shape us, refine us, bless us, and redeem us. Do not dismiss the seemingly sentimental truth that Scripture is God’s love letter to us. It truly is. Remember that.
Do not dismiss the seemingly sentimental truth that Scripture is God’s love letter to us. It truly is.
Be ruthlessly honest.
We must ask ourselves hard questions like: Do I actually give the Bible any serious attention? If not, why would we expect that love and delight will spring from our hearts? If something is genuinely good, the way to appreciate it is not by remaining distant from it. For example, I show my appreciation for a good TV show by giving it constant attention. And as I give it devoted attention, I love it more and more. It’s similar with Scripture. The more loving attention we give it, the more likely it is that we’ll grow in our love for it.
Adjust expectations.
When we come to the Bible, we need to ask ourselves: What do I expect to receive from this reading? This may help clarify whether we are pursuing a realistic and good goal, or one that will only disappoint. For instance, if I desire to learn a new and exciting truth, be changed instantly, or feel something every quiet time, then I’ll be disappointed. But if I come to be fed in whatever way God deems right for that day, then I won’t be disappointed and, instead, can find joy in whatever God gives me. God’s Word most often shapes a person after repeated, thoughtful exposure to it—rather than by momentary flashes of insight.
Pray for our hearts.
We need to follow the lead of the psalmist, who prayed for steadfastness and wholeheartedness toward Scripture (Ps. 119:5; 119:135), for a heart inclined to God’s word (Ps. 119:36), for understanding (Ps. 119:34), and for wondrous insights (Ps. 119:18). Only God can bend our wayward hearts toward his word. Only God can make us lovers of his good Word. Thankfully, these are his desires for us. So, let’s pray like we believe that.
As we cooperate with God in cultivating delight, may he enable us to know and feel that the Bible is true gift from his loving heart.
Notes:
- “The Helvetic Confession (1536),” in James T. Dennison, ed., Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Century in English Translation (Reformation Heritage, 2008), 1:344.
- “The Formula Consensus Helvetica (1675),” Dennison, Reformed Confessions, 4:520 (italics added).
- Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 118.
- Julia Sterling, “Oh, Wonderful Word!”
- H. F. Lyte, “Well Thy Works Proclaim Thee”
Uche Anizor is the author of The Goodness of God in the Gift of Scripture: 20 Meditations.
