I wanted to pick up on what Winston shared with all of us at church on Sunday night about the talks from BLT+ (the weekend conference he was at the previous weekend). The talks were given by Pastor Andrew Hong from Sydney, on the subject ‘fueling the fire’ – how to gain or regain a love for God Himself that comes from the heart*.
One thing Winston mentioned was that we can lapse into reading God’s word as just words and thoughts, in order to gain more knowledge and perhaps even more understanding. But God intends more for us – He wants us to read His word to also grow in our love for Him. He wants our affections** to be captivated and fuelled by the process of reading the Bible.
This is something I wax and wane on myself, and have been recently needing to relearn. When I read the Bible as thoughts that go straight to my brain and stay there, it becomes a hard task, a chore, and quite a grey one at that. But as I read it relationally, with a Person in mind on ‘the other end’, as I ask God to interact with me through His word it slowly returns to being a joyful undertaking. I wish I could say I was ‘there’; it’s still a work in progress, but I’m motivated by God’s work as I persist – and our time away definitely helped me regain lots in the way of stirred up joy in Him and His creation and our lives in it – but that’s another story…
For now I’d just like to suggest a prayer to pray, if you too find your affections waning but would like to do something about it.
Stir up my heart, grow my love for you, and bring me ever more ‘to life’ as you, Living God, speak to me through your living word.
…
*…rather than a love for ideas about God, which comes from and is limited to the mind, if I may use that dichotomy.
**…which as I understand them, are more volitional and solid than fleeting emotions
I really appreciated Winston sharing about this on Sunday (sorry, I don’t think I’ve told you yet Winston). Thanks for following this up K. Winston’s comments and your post reminds me of a great quote I read from Raymond Ortlund Jr in his book on Romans:
“When you look at the Bible, what do you see? I have learned to see the Bible as kindling for holy fire. Scripture is meant to inform us, and thus to inflame us. It is meant to illuminate our thoughts of God, and thus to alight our affections for God”.