Are You Reading the Bible by Rote?

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)
 
Are you reading the Bible by rote?

I just heard someone say that, that they were just reading the Bible by rote.

In other words, they were just being mechanical, doing it because they knew they should, sticking to their schedule...through the Bible in a year, baby!

Of course scheduled Bible reading is a beautiful thing, unless you aren’t getting anything out of it.

Maybe you are reading the Bible because you know you should, but it’s rote, it’s mechanical, it’s lifeless.  The Spirit’s not in it, and by that I mean the Holy Spirit.

So what can you do?

Here is a sure fire Bible reading plan:  read until your heart burns within you. 

That’s what happens when God opens the Scriptures to you.  His Holy Spirit will suddenly leap inside you, basically saying, “There it is!  Look at that.  Focus on it.  Ponder it.  Meditate on it.  Learn it and let it sink into your heart.”

 It’s His Spirit testifying with your spirit about God’s truth.

That’s what happened to the men on the road to Emmaus.  They were walking along, and suddenly a stranger joined them.  The stranger began to open up the Scriptures to them with power and authority.  Finally their eyes were opened to see that it was actually the newly resurrected Jesus...and then Jesus disappeared.

And what was their exclamation?  What excited them so?  Here is what they said in Luke 24:32, “Did not our heart burn within us...while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

And I think God does the same thing today.  We read the Bible, and suddenly our heart burns within us, suddenly His Holy Spirit leaps within us as certain words jump out at us, or as the men on the road to Emmaus put it, He opens the Scriptures to us.

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth, and Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and guide us into all truth.

How does He do that?  One way is by opening the Scriptures to us by making certain verses at certain times spring to life!

So watch for it.  Try reading the Bible, not until you meet your quota, or not until you finish the chapter, but simply read until God opens the Scripture to you, making your heart burn within you.

May God bless you...as you read His Word today!

I’m Doug Apple.