How Do You Treat The Bible? (con,t.)

5 WAYS WE TREAT THE BIBLE (continued from yesterday)

4. Some people treat the Bible like Algebra.

I figured out many years ago, that math is not one of my spiritual gifts. In fact, sometimes I think God skipped right over the mathematical brain cells when He was forming me in my mother's womb!

I always thought Algebra, with all its equations and x's and y's, was surely a waste of time, and it was definately not my friend. After all, who really uses that stuff once you get out of school? Rubbish, I tell you. Pure rubbish.

But deep down, the real reason that I hated math, was not that I thought it was an unnecessary part of life, but because I just could not understand it. All those formulas and numbers looked like Greek to me. My talents seem to lie in the areas of creativity, writing and artsy type things, and not in the areas of analytical logistics or number crunching, so the subject of math consistently felt overwhelming and frustrating.

Sometimes the Bible can seem so overwhelming and confusing, that we begin to feel that we may not need it either. Or we just assume that it will be confusing, so we steer clear of it.

We want to avoid those feelings of frustration and lack of understanding, so we make the secret choice to avoid the Bible altogether. We still sit hungrily under the teaching of ministers and others, but when it comes to sitting down with the Good Book on our own ... not going to happen.

But God's Word is not an algebra equation. It is necessary for our every day living, and if we ask, God will grant us the desire to read it, and the wisdom to understand it and apply it to our lives.

5. Some people treat the Bible like a hobby.

When I was a teenager, I loved to cross stitch. I spent years building up my inventory of stitching fabrics, embroidery hoops and countless bands of colored thread. I even created several large pieces of art, some of which were framed and treasured. But as I grew older, I lost interest, I lost the time, and I lost the passion to keep it up.

When my children were younger, I thought scrapbooking seemed like a great idea. I bought all the supplies, and for a period of a few months, worked diligently to turn all of my precious photographs into books of special keepsakes and memories. But after a while, I lost interest, I lost the time, and I lost the passion to keep it up.

When we first accept Christ, or during times when we feel close to Him and see Him intervening in our lives, we are excited - just like when we take on a new hobby.

We are passionate about pursuing Him and growing in our faith. We get involved in Bible studies, commit to daily quiet time, and focus on prayer.

But then time passes, life happens, busyness runs rampant, and problems require our attention... and we lose interest, we lose time, and we lose our passion for the pursuit of an intimate friendship and relationship with Jesus.

If we aren't careful, we can view our faith as a hobby, rather than a journey, and the result is that our passion for Christ becomes a phase, instead of a lifestyle.

God is not a passing hobby - He is a lifelong commitment. He was, is and is to come.



So how have you been treating the Bible lately? Like an hors d'ouerve tray, car rental insurance, a seatbelt, an algebra equation, or maybe a hobby?

If we treat God's Word like anything other than the life-saving, life-giving, life-sustaining treasure that it is, then it might just be time to make a change.

How we treat the Bible is an indication of how important God is in our life.

Tomorrow, I will be kicking off a blog series focused on the lies that keep us from making God a priority in our life, and from seeing our own value and hidden potential.

I look forward to having you along for the ride, and committing together to put God, and the truths found in His Word, as the key authority over our life.