The Landscape of His Word
On a recent flight, I opened my Bible, preparing to take some time to read and pray God’s Word. As I turned to the page before me, I glanced out the window and saw the textured folds of the landscape below. I was captivated by the scene, delighting in the unparalleled beauty of God’s creation.
Below me, I could see mountains, hills, and valleys. Upon and within those mountains, hills, and valleys were lakes, streams, and forests. There were also roads and paths. I even spotted a few isolated houses and wondered about the people who chose to live in the midst of such rugged beauty.
I realized that although I could see far and wide from my “bird’s eye view,” much was actually hidden from my sight because I was 10,000 feet above the earth. I knew but I couldn’t see that wildlife lived in those forests, flora grew on those hills, and fish swam in those waters. From my elevated vantage point, I couldn’t touch the dirt or the rocks that were the foundation of the land or dig beneath them to discover the treasures they held. I marveled thinking about the layer upon layer upon layer, from the macro perspective to the finest detail, that God had designed in the scene that lay below.
I sensed a parallel between this vision and the Word of God I held open on my lap. Sometimes, we see scripture from a distant overview, surveying the main themes of God’s love for humanity, our problem of sin, and His plan for salvation through Jesus. That’s the bird’s eye view which gives us a sense of “the lay of the land.”
If we move in closer and put boots to the ground, we can “walk” through scripture passages, as one might hike along a forest path. There are many opportunities for personal discoveries when we move in closer. We encounter new things, things that God has woven into the landscape or written into the Bible that is ours to discover and enjoy.
Yet, there is still another level of engagement that comes when we choose to settle upon the land. We learn how to partner with it. We become dependent on its resources and mine its treasures. We are sustained by it. This is the level of engagement that God intends for us with His Word. He encourages us to dwell within it, learning to depend upon it, discovering the treasures He has hidden within, and being sustained by its life.
2 Timothy 3:16 -17 declares, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This is God’s gift to us, reflecting His heart for us. He wants us to be fully equipped, completely resourced for every good work. Thus, He has given us His Word: His truth, His instructions, His wisdom and His ways, written into the scriptures so that we can know how best to live in this world.
Dear One, I encourage you today to consider your relationship with the Word of God. Are you viewing it from a far-off place? Are you strolling through it from time to time, enjoying the scenery? Or have you settled into it, making it a dwelling place for your heart and a foundation for your life?
In Matthew 4:4 Jesus said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” If we want to live - really live - lives of purpose, meaning and joy, then we must learn to live in the Word of God.
A Prayer:
Lord God, thank You for the truth and love revealed in Your Word. Help me to dwell within it so that You can connect with my heart and teach my mind. Help me to understand and appreciate Scripture so that I can better understand and appreciate who You are and who You have created me to be. May I be a man/woman of Your Word.
In Your Name, Jesus, Amen.
ADDENDUM
From the pen of George Muller (Evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down Orphanage in Bristol, England in the 1800’s):
“I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in the right spirit. . . .
“The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.”
Here was a man who learned to dwell within the scriptures. :)
