The Bible should be any Christian’s best friend and companion. Through reading it daily we begin to understand ourselves and the world better and we can discover how much God loves us and His plan for our lives. Reading the Bible gives us a number of blessings:
Truth
The Bible gives us the truth about God (and ourselves) that we could never discover on our own. The truth that we find in the Bible is not the truth of an idea but the truth we find in a person, a person who is totally faithful to His word. God is that person and the Bible is like a mirror, reflecting back to us the true character of God as well as our own unfaithfulness.
Power
The Bible uses images like a hammer and fire (Jeremiah 23:29) to describe God’s power and St. Paul says the word of God is ‘the sword of the Spirit’ (Ephesians 6:17). This power is not a physical power, able to lift or move heavy objects but a spiritual power, which is infinitely greater and can change our spirits, our hearts and our minds. It is the power of goodness and of love and even helps us endure physical weakness, suffering and sacrifice for the sake of Christ and our neighbour.
Life
Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) We read in Ezekiel 37 about the dry bones coming to life and God says “I will put my spirit within you and you shall live.” (Ezekiel 37:14)
What happened to the dry bones can also happen to us when we read the Bible. But we must read prayerfully, being aware of the presence of God and giving Him the time and space to speak to us as we read. The life that the Bible gives us is eternal life, a sharing, by grace, in the very life of God Himself. As we read the Bible each day, we will find that our lives and the situations around us change for the better because, through grace, we are able to see the world more and more as God sees it and our own prayer life becomes more meaningful.
Joy
The Psalms are full of expressions of joy in God’s word (Psalm 19:8; Psalm 33:1). Jeremiah said to God, “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy, and the delight of my heart.” (Jeremiah15:16) The joy God gives us is different to anything the world can give because it is God’s love and He never stops loving us. The Bible is God’s love letter to each one of us. We all need to be loved and hopefully we are all loved by others in our lives, by parents, children, grandparents and friends. But God’s love is unchanging and forever, even when we don’t love Him back in return. He never stops loving us and died on the Cross for us.
The Bible is the most interesting book ever written. It contains within it everything we ever need to know about God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. For an excellent guide on how to read the whole Bible and the Catechism in one year go to www. brandonvogt.com/ read-bible-2015
Written by Maureen Chatfield