How Not To Read Your Bible | Theocast

One of the ways that people approach reading Scripture that's less than helpful, we might say they approach it from a sentimental perspective, or it's a very subjective perspective where they are looking for a kind of feeling, a sort of emotional takeaway from their time in the

Word. That's just going to be all kinds of unhelpful for people, in part because our feelings and our emotions vacillate like crazy by the moment, certainly by the day, and so you're going to feel different ways about reading the

Bible. You're going to feel different ways reading it. There are going to be some days where you might be affected and stirred, and there are going to be other days where it's just flat.

It's like, man, this is just nothing. Nothing's happening. And then what usually is the takeaway from all that, on the days when we feel something strongly, oh man, that time was productive, and that time was useful, and that was a blessing, and all that.

But then if it's a day where we just didn't feel anything reading Scripture, or maybe didn't read it at all because we didn't feel like doing it, because we were just sort of emotionally exhausted, then we are just mega discouraged.

Instead of putting any wind in our sails, it just robs us of any motivation, and we start to doubt all kinds of things.

It's definitely an unsteady way to approach Scripture, to be looking for some kind of sentimental takeaway, or some sort of warm and fuzzy, good feeling, good vibe that we might glean from the

Bible. We're going to pivot later to how we should read our Bibles, but this is certainly not a way to approach it.

I think another way of saying that would be looking for an experience every time we open

God's word. We hear language like, you need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You need to cultivate that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and it needs to be intimate.

If you're not spending time with your wife, how are you going to have a relationship with her?

So if you're not spending time with Jesus, how are you going to have a relationship with Him? What ends up happening is that we assume that every time we spend time with Jesus, it needs to be this euphoric moment, and you almost have the pressure of having the first date syndrome, right?

You always want that feeling you had on your first date, if it was a good first date, and anybody who's been married for a long period of time knows that that's just not how relationships work, nor how you build it.

You're not shooting for your first date every time. Sometimes a trip to the coffee store is just what's needed, not a $75 dinner.

The dangerous part of that is that when we look at scripture, you don't see

Paul giving us instructions on how to have this experiential moment with God. That's the danger.

I would say a lot of people become discouraged in their interactions with God's word because it doesn't produce this experimental moment where my life was transformed this morning.

Now I'm going to have a better day. Very quickly, just a brief insertion, there was a very popular devotional

Bible study called Experiencing God that went around in some churches that I was a part of, but to your point, we are looking for this experience of communion with God, and communion with God is legit and real.

We just are not always going to have that conscious experience as we're reading scripture by ourselves.