Read It For Yourself

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

Think back to when you were a child, sitting in Sunday School, listening to the teacher tell you about all the best Bible stories: Adam & Eve, Noah & the ark, Moses & the Red Sea, Abraham & Isaac, Jesus & the 12 Apostles...the list goes on and on.
Now think ahead a little...you're sitting in church, listening to the preacher tell you those same stories, and many others, just a more "grown-up" version of them. Now let me ask you this: has most or even all of what you know of the bible and of God been told to you by someone else? Or, have you read and studied the bible for yourself, drawing your own conclusions, and asking God to reveal His truth to you?

For most of my life, the former question was true of me. Most of what I knew about the bible and God came from what other people had told me, only occasionally reading the bible for myself. It wasn't until the past couple of years that I actually started really reading the bible for myself, asking God to write His word on my heart, and help me to understand what the text is saying. How many times have you been reading a passage, and you just breeze through it without actually taking the time to understand what it really says?

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a big fan of Christian books. Not that they are bad, and that they shouldn't be read, but I am very wary of them because they are just one person's opinion and interpretation of something. Anyone can write a book. My problem with books is that often, people will place higher importance on those books than on the bible itself. Just because they read something they happen to like or agree with, then it must be the truth. This is a tremendous mistake. The only absolute truth out there is the written word of God - the Bible.

Reading the bible for ourselves also helps us identify false prophets. If we know what it says in the Word, we will know when someone is misinterpreting or misusing it. It will also help us to be able to respond when people ask about our faith. 1 Peter 3:15 says "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

God's word tells us everything we need to know. But we have to read it for ourselves. We cannot go through life depending on other people to feed it to us. Not your parents, not your siblings, not your friends, not even pastors. It's good to listen to your pastor, and to others, but ultimately, we answer to the one who resides in heaven. Reading the bible is one of the best ways for us to grow closer to God. It helps us understand his character, and how we should be living. If you are doing something that doesn't line up with what it says in the bible, you know you are not behaving the way God wants you to. Bottom line: read it for yourself.