By Michael Warren
Miss Lila, age 80, was overheard informing a neighborhood friend, “Our pastor is a real angel. He’s always up in the air harping about us being daily Bible readers!” Please consider the great advantages you will realize as you improve your spiritual condition by being a daily Bible reader.
1. You get to know God better
The Bible is God’s divine self-revelation to us. God breathed out the words of Holy Scripture. And God breathed into Holy Scripture something of Himself that no other body of literature does or can contain (2 Tim. 3:16).
Reading the Bible is how we discover Who God is, what God is like, and what God expects of us as His children. We hear the voice of the Lord Himself speaking to us — individually and personally — as we read the Bible, and our fellowship and familiarity with God grows and deepens.
2. You feed your spiritual self
Matthew 4:4 tells us the Lord Jesus overcame Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread after a lengthy period of fasting (voluntarily abstaining from eating to focus on spiritual matters) by quoting Deut. 8:3, “. . . man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” God is gracious and generous to provide us with physical food to nourish our physical bodies. God is also gracious and generous to supply us with His Word to nourish our spiritual selves. A regular conscientious consuming of a balanced diet of both physical AND spiritual foods is a must for human life.
3. You become more confident and certain
Like the noble fair-minded folks Paul and the missionary team met in Berea, a daily search of Scripture results in increasing confidence and deeper certainty about God and His truth (Acts 17:10-15). And such confirmation, confidence, and certainty result in greater assurance.
4. You have biblical hope
The Bible was written for God’s people to learn so that we can persevere (keep on keeping on) and be encouraged in order that we “might have hope” (Rom. 15:4, KJV). Hope is more than wishful optimism. Biblical hope is the settled expectation that God will fulfill all His promises, especially related to the Second Coming of Christ and a favorable outcome of history. Who doesn’t need and can’t use some hope?
5. You become thoroughly outfitted to serve the Lord
God inspired (breathed out and breathed something of Himself into) Holy Scripture so His children could be fully equipped to do their Father’s work in the world (2 Tim. 3:17). Reading the Bible, we gear up to work for the Lord Jesus Christ. Every instrument, implement, and piece of equipment necessary for us to serve is readily available in God’s Book. The Bible is the equipment shed to which we turn for every tool the individual believer and the Lord’s church need to do the job God gives and the tasks God assigns.
6. You inoculate yourself against error
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, people held erroneous beliefs about what the Bible says/teaches and about what God can do. The Lord’s most forceful condemnation of the Sadducee sect who denied the biblical teachings about the immortality of the soul and the bodily resurrection of the dead appears in Matt. 22:29, “. . . ‘Ye do err not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God” (KJV). Errors of belief (and behavior) still abound in our day. Daily Bible reading immunizes you against such infectious spiritual illnesses.
7. You personally experience the setting apart Jesus prays for
In His prayer in John 17:17, Jesus prays, “Sanctify (set apart) them through thy truth: thy word is truth,” (KJV). God is set apart or separated and in a class by Himself. God uses His Word to separate and set apart His people by increasing their distance from the fallen sin sick world order and drawing His people closer to Himself. The setting apart happens for you when you hear, read, study, memorize, meditate on, obey, and share God’s Word.
Be an angel
After you become a daily Bible reader and begin to experience and enjoy the benefits of the same, please be an angel. Get up in the air and harp about every believer and church member experiencing and enjoying the blessings of being a daily Bible reader.
Warren is pastor of New Home Church, Fulton.
