You know, there’s those moments where things just seem to be off in my life, which are just signs from God telling me I am doing way too much and losing sight of who I am living this life for. I experienced that feeling last week and felt I was overdue for much needed alone time with God. Although I read my daily scriptures, I want to get better at making it a priority of setting time aside to properly sink my teeth into the word and spending quality time in His presence. So, I did just that.
A few days ago, I prayed and focused my reading in John while carefully taking notes. My reading was smooth and I was very easily taking everything in until I came across a few scriptures that literally had me shook. It was John 5:39-40 where Jesus says:
” 39 You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very scriptures speak about me! 40 Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life.”
Jesus actually directed this statement towards the Jewish leaders who believed in God but not Jesus as the Messiah, yet for some reason after reading this I felt convicted.
My conviction was to the point where I found myself staring at those two scriptures for several minutes reading them over and over again. On one hand, one can understand these scriptures to be geared towards non-believers of Christ or possibly non-Christians, but on the other hand, what about us Christians who read the word and yet still don’t come to Him for our everyday needs?
Sometimes, we (Christians) believe that by reading as much of the bible that we possibly can and being able to recite the most scriptures off the top of our dome will grant us access to eternal life but we fail to truly trust the one who brings meaning to the word: Christ. Truthfully speaking, I’m not trusting God as much as I should. I was feeling the way I was feeling last week because I was reading my word and then turning to myself, people, or the world for strength and answers to my problems. Ultimately, I was believing in the practice of reading scriptures and not so much the power of Jesus but it’s okay as long as I read my scriptures, right? WRONG!
Scriptures can never save me because Christ already has!
Relying on man and the world who can barely help themselves is not putting me on the path of eternal life but rather the opposite. I need to trust in the one who these scriptures are about. I need to actually trust in God’s will, the changes He can make in my life and the desires He can fulfill. Most importantly, letting Him do what He does best, which is being AWESOME!
In the words of John, “No one can have anything unless God gives it to him” (John 3:27), and this includes the growth I desire in the area of trusting in the Lord. This by no means will be easy but I know that I can’t walk this walk without Him so I need to practice leaning on His strength and not my own. I thank God for this revelation and putting this message on my heart because I needed this more than I even knew. The complacency in this walk is too easy to get trapped into but it’s moments like this that humble me and give me a deeper love and respect for God.
Until next time loves, stay blessed!
Love,
Christine
Create & Pray 
Amen Sis! This post resonated with me so much, I too struggle with believing that by reading the scriptures I am doing my part. We need to act in harmony with the scriptures and what we pray for. If we are praying for health, guess what; we need to eat healthy too! Girl keep these posts coming and feed me with those scriptures.
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Amen!! Thank you so much for the love sis! It is certainly important to do our part but also not to expect that change comes from us but rather from Him.
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Sigh, story of my life! This reminds me of John 1…”there was the word, and the word was with God, and the word is God”. Amazing post : )
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Ahhh Won’t He do it to you?! Thanks for reading!
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Thanks for sharing those verses and your insight, Chris. I wholeheartedly agree with you. As with anything that you study, you need real practice to get “good”. In this case, you can read the word and try to teach yourself what to do to follow His way, but unless you are actually acting in this manner, you’ll never get to that next level that you seek. I feel like this is the unfortunate struggle of humanity in accepting God and walking in his ways, especially in today’s world. The loudness of modern-day distractions and diversions appears to be drowning out God’s call to action for many of us, including those who religiously go to church and study the bible.
On a positive note, I think that while acknowledging that we as God’s children struggle with our inability to study the word of the Lord and take action, this continued struggle is at least an indication that humanity is continuing to seek God. We are not completely allowing ourselves to forget faith in the face of flashy things. It’s much easier to practice something you know and understand, than it is to start from scratch. Living His word is one of those things.
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Nelly, thank you for your well thought out response. I definitely agree with you. It is so easy to believe in what we see rather than have real faith, which is believing in the unseen. God never said this walk would be easy. In fact He mentions that there will be long suffering but this long suffering comes with joy as we get to partake in Christ’s suffering so we can then reap our reward in Heaven. I think we have to allow Him to make changes within us in His own timing and in His own way. We are nothing without Him and this goes for even the changes we want to see in ourselves. There is a lot of distraction so we have to be in His word. We need to be reminding ourselves about His word all parts of our day which I am still learning and trying to grow in. Like you said, I thank God that people are still trying to understand God even if it is hard for them. I pray God reveals Himself to them in a way that provides them with that peace of mind and understanding they have been yearning for.
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