Pastor Havilah Cunnington says one of the lies we believe about the Bible is simply that we cannot understand it, and therefore, we don’t read it. Another lie is that we only need the Bible in dire circumstances.
But she says Deuteronomy 6 instructs the Israelites to teach the Word to their children.
“What [the writer] was saying is that the Bible is so clear, you can tell your kids about it and they’d understand it,” Cunnington says. “So maybe the enemy has used that lie to keep you from reading the Word of God … Stop. God wants you to know that we have got to be able to get into the Word. … I think if we focused on what we did understand, we’d still have a lot to do.”
Cunnington says if we only pick up the Word when we’re crying and need to resonate with David in the Psalms, we won’t get in the critical habit of meditating on the Bible.
“We won’t have anything reserved; we won’t have anything held in the vault of our heart, so when we do need it, we’re going to be scrambling for something rather than being able to say, ‘Oh, I have a verse for that,'” Cunnington says.
If we’re going after the Word only for what it can give us, and we don’t think we need it on the “good” days too, we’re fooling ourselves. Cunnington writes down what God spoke to her next to a verse in her Bible with the date, so she can remember that it’s a living text through which God speaks to us.
“I realize that the Word is reading me,” Cunnington says. “God has divinely orchestrated these words for this day, in this moment, for my heart, and some days, I don’t feel anything; I don’t hear a thing. And you know what? That’s OK; I have tomorrow, because ultimately, it’s not about the feeling of what I get from Scripture, it’s not about me feeling spiritual. … I open up the Word because I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ, and it’s my duty to know the Word.”
To listen to more teaching on getting into the Word, click here.
