What's one thing God has been teaching you through His Word?
Most of us long to connect with each other on a deeper level than, 'How about the weather?' or 'Did you see the game on the weekend?'
We want to know people and be truly known by them. We want people at church to be 'real' and we want to be able to be our authentic selves without masks or pretences or pretending everything is wonderful all the time.
Sometimes it can be really hard to know how to have 'spiritual' conversations with our brothers and sisters at church. We don't know where to start. We don't know what to ask. We're not sure if our question will be welcomed or reciprocated.
When I was at Bible College one of our lecturers used to encourage us to be asking each other (and asking the people in our churches) this simple question:
What's one thing God has been teaching you through His Word?
It's a great question for many reasons.
Firstly, it focuses us on God and that we're living in a relationship with him. God is active in that relationship relating to us and us to Him.
Secondly, it reminds us that God is speaking to us through his Word. When it comes to our relationship with God, it begins with Him speaking to us through the Bible and the words of the gospel and us listening and responding to him. Sometimes the question will prompt us to think, 'Oh, I've not really been reading the Bible much and I really should get back into it!'
Thirdly, this question helps reinforce for us the expectation that God does speakto us through His Word. We can easily fall into a rut where we think that the Bible is just a text to be studied, or a tool for a job, or just a historical document.
Hebrews reminds us that "the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
As Paul says in Ephesians 6, God's word is the 'sword of the Spirit'. We ought to expect it to change us when we read.
The final reason why this question can be helpful is that it is concrete. Questions that are too vague can be difficult to answer or know where to begin. However, this focuses on one aspect of following Jesus and from here the conversation may flow elsewhere.
What's one thing God has been teaching you through His Word?
Why not give it a try this Sunday?
Grace & peace,
Andrew
eNews - 28 May 2021