Alongside the many resolutions for weight loss or new hobbies to master, the onset of a New Year often brings with it a fresh desire to read the Bible. I’ve seen and read many posts and articles over the past week encouraging different plans for reading through the Bible this year.
As Christians hearing from God through His Word is not an optional extra but central to persevering and growing in our faith.
Spiritual Drift
As we look at the Lord Testament we see how drifting away from God goes hand in hand with neglecting God’s Words to them.
In 2 Kings 22 a young King Josiah inherits a kingdom which has moved away from Yahweh to follow other gods. So far has Israel drifted that God's Words (the book of the Covenant or Law) have been lost in the ruins of the temple.
In rebuilding the Temple ruins the ‘Book of the Law’ is discovered. On its discovery the book of the law is read aloud to King Josiah. Upon hearing its words the young king ‘tore his robes’ (2 Kings 22:11). Josiah realised how far God’s people had drifted from him and it caused him to be grieved at their sin against God. In repentance Josiah gathers at the Temple ‘the priests and the prophets – all the people from the least to the greatest’ (2 Kings 23:2).
Why?
So that they could hear ‘all the words of the Book of the Covenant’ (2 Kings 23:2) in order that God’s people could ‘renew the covenant in the presence of the Lord’ (2 Kings 23:3). Reading God’s Word led to a fresh realisation of their sin and a desire to repent and live in the way God desires his people to live.
A drift away from God's Word had caused a spiritual drift away from God himself as they had worshipped false gods.
As we enter a New Year of restrictions and limitations we too must be wary of becoming alienated from God’s Word and therefore drifting away from God.
The writer of the Hebrews encourages believers to ‘pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away’ (Heb 2:1).
Drift is an ever present danger unless we continue to pay attention to God’s Word and allow it to impact our lives.
Spiritual Dryness
One of the dangers of living in a Covid world is that we can become spiritually dry. Many of the things that we enjoy as Christians and are beneficial to us are either not available or exist in diluted form.
Physically gathering together as a whole church family, singing truths which warm our souls alongside others, and gathering round the Lord’s Table to have that physical reminder of the cost of our salvation are just a few things that are denied us at the moment.
As one pastor commented as he reflected upon last year,
’I feel parched and I should expect to when key aspects of the Christian Life are unavailable or in a diluted form’.
That may be similar to how we feel at the moment. There is no denying that engaging with online services and events can sometimes be a challenge.
So how do we guard against this dryness or this drift?
- Make the most of the opportunities we do have
Online church, Zoom Prayer, Zoom evening services, Zoom Growth Groups…all of these are not what we would choose. It is important we recognise that they are diluted forms of what we would have them be. Yet they are still able to bring us the benefits of seeing one another, hearing from one another and perhaps most importantly of all, the opportunity to be under God’s word together.
As we enter 2021 we need to persevere as a church family with the modes of gathering which are available to us, even if we are struggling with screen overload or the lack of warm interaction that is unique to meeting face to face.
- Approach these opportunities with the right heart
This is true in any time of life and in any circumstances. In ‘Before You Open Your Bible’ Matt Smethurst encourages us to consider 9 heart postures in approaching God’s word: prayerfully, humbly, desperately, studiously, obediently, joyfully, expectantly, communally, christocentrically.
If we see these gatherings above as opportunities to hear from God’s Word then the same postures are helpful to consider applying to our lives. They are perhaps especially important as we seek to gain from online and Zoom services which are a blessing but may bring challenges of focus, engagement or concentration as we sit in the comfort of our own home with the various potential distractions that this comes with.
- Spend time in God’s Word day by day
The Bible teaches that God’s people are to live and grow under God’s Word corporately as a body of Christ. The church is to make disciples (evangelise) and to help grow us in our faith.
The corporate gathering of a church Sunday by Sunday represents the weekly opportunity given to us to sit under God’s Word together.
We also benefit as Christians from personal Bible reading during the week. Some use Bible reading resources to help with this. Others benefit from using plans for reading the Bible through in one or two years.
In Thursdays blog we'll be suggesting some resources that might be worth looking in to as we seek to gain from reading God's Word corporately and individually in the coming year.
