I’m currently studying and practicing Lectio Divina, or spiritual reading. The problem with the way we’ve always been reading the Bible is that we approach it with an agenda. Instead, we need to pick up our bibles with an open mind and changeable heart to let God do what He needs to do in us through the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is a holy, living text, but not on it’s own when approached with some agenda in mind. Only when we allow God to work on us through his words. Only when we approach the Bible to learn about God and his revelations on his terms.
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I am currently studying this in seminary and am learning a lot. The opportunity to be transformed by the Word is so much more than we imagine. A great book for you to check out would be Shaped by the Word by M.Robert Mulholland.
Hi Paul
Thanks for your comment.
What’s the most remarkable thing for me, is that we’ll do so many spiritual things in search of transformation or a formative experience, but we fail to realize the power of Scripture when read in conversation with God. As Eugene Peterson puts it, we should ‘Read to Live’.
Take care,
DriesC
I love the thought of reading Scripture “in conversation with God” – a wonderful way to put it.
Being in love with God I too find myself again and again not being able to get enough of His words. However, I think it is a bit self-deceiving to think that we can approach His word with no agenda. “To let God do what He needs to do in us through the Holy Spirit” is an agenda. God will work through His Scriptures to grow us even if we do not always come before Him in the best frame of mind, or heart, or with the purest of motives.