TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

People sometimes imagine that spiritual growth can happen passively. Some act as if simply keeping a Bible on a nightstand will somehow let its truth seep in overnight, as if understanding could be absorbed through proximity alone. Others hope that sleeping near scripture will eventually produce wisdom without effort. Neither approach actually works.

Genuine engagement with scripture requires action. I believe the first step is reading the text itself; there is no substitute for actually going through the words. Second, we need to meditate on what has been read, asking what the passage is the passage saying to me personally. Third, belief has to follow understanding; it isn’t enough to read words without trusting what they say. Fourth, the teaching must be applied to one’s own life, not used as a measuring stick for someone else’s behaviour. Finally, obedience completes the process; knowing and believing scripture means little without acting on it.

It’s part of our relationship with God. Although I gave five steps, I wrote this as an example, not something to be taken as a cold-cognitive process.

Do you read God’s word daily?

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.

James 1:22