Alpha Course, How and Why Should We Read the Bible

This week is another interesting, challenging lesson as part of our Spiritual formation. It's also another week where I think Nicky uses some powerful illustrations to help drive home the point about what he's teaching us.

Last week we introduced the idea of prayer journals, and I hope that is still something that you're taking advantage of. Nicky again references his own personal use of journals during his daily devotional time. I, too, have been working to fill out my journal this past week and I've found it to be a challenging tool to help focus my personal time with God.

And that time with God is important. One of the biggest reasons that Nicky hits upon for studying the Scriptures is that it helps us absorb God's will for our lives, it provides guidelines for our conduct, and it furthers out relationship with Him.

The theologian D.L. Moody said, "We were not given the Bible to increase our knowledge, we were given it to improve our lives." The Bible provides instruction, inspiration, conviction, and hope. It can also be a refuge during tough times.

Nicky referenced a time in his life when he had a deep worry or fear regarding his father, and his father's relation to the truth of the Scriptures. He talks about the way that God reached out to him, giving him a sign, through the Scriptures, and about how it took him some time to really grasp that.

It reminded me of a scene in the film "Bruce Almighty." Bruce (Jim Carrey) is crying out for a sign from God, and signs literally start appearing, but he ignores them as an annoyance, not realizing that was the answer he sought.

I have found that sometimes that can be true in my own life when it comes to the Scriptures. Often, when it seems I am wrestling with something or trying to work through an issue, that is when God speaks to me most through his word. A verse will come up on a Sunday morning, I'll find something in my devotional reading, or I'll see a verse used somewhere that seems to be pointed straight at me. It can be hard to believe, but that is often God's way of speaking to our needs and the worries of our hearts. We just have to be willing to listen.

Nicky emphasizes a few things about our response to the Scriptures — we need to set aside time to be in the Word, we need a quiet place to consider the Word, we need to ask tough questions and seek responses in prayer, and we have to be willing to listen to the answers and put what we've learned into practice.

It doesn't happen over night, but it is a challenge — and a process — worth undertaking.