The Bible isn’t about you. Wait … what?

This is the first blog of a mini-series covering foundational truths that we must understand in order to rightly steward the Word of God.

We love to go to church as a family, despite the war cries you may hear coming out of my mini van as we pull into the parking lot, I promise we really do like going to church! When we get in the van after church, Andrew and I are normally talking about the sermon and making final lunch plans, the kids

are tearing their name tags into tiny shreds and eating their crafts so we’ll ask them …

What did you guys learn today?

What was the lesson about?

And they give the ultimate “Sunday school safe answer” what do they say? “God” and they know, we got nothing, we can’t argue with that.

No matter what the lesson was actually about… when it gets down to it, it was probably about God. So I’m going to ask YOU a question and I’m totally going to allow you to give the safe, Sunday school answer…

Who is the Bible about?

“God” YES! Great job!

Seems simple enough, right?

But is it really that simple?

We answer that very matter-of-factly as if we would never even consider that the Bible is about someone other than God.

BUT how many of us have walked away from reading the Bible and said, “Okay, I didn’t get much out of that.”

How many of us have searched through scripture relentlessly looking for an answer to a specific issue or situation we are facing in our lives and become frustrated because we just can’t get a clear answer.

Why is that? It is because, despite our emphatic answer to the question of Who is the Bible about … we sometimes (most of the time) think that the Bible is about … me!

And it’s just not.

When we approach the Bible, we should have no ulterior motive for our study. We don’t read the Bible to figure out which job to take or person to marry. The Bible isn’t a list of rules to follow and to judge others by. We don’t read the Bible to increase our happiness or peace of mind. We read the Bible to know God.

As God reveals His character to us, we do learn things about ourselves. We are made in His image and we should absolutely be convicted as we come to know Him deeper. For example, His perfect grace and forgiveness towards us should reveal areas of our hearts that are hardened toward others and areas in our life that require more grace. As we experience fellowship with God through the study of His Word, it does shift our perspective towards the things above and we experience less stress about the things of this world. When we are awe struck by the faithfulness of God in the testimonies that we read in scripture, we will be prompted to worship and in turn, we will experience joy because we were created to worship.

It’s not about me BUT when I allow the Holy Spirit, IN me, to interact with the new knowledge I gather about God, I WILL be transformed.

No doubt, a deeper understanding of God’s Word will change us, it will sanctify us, and bear fruit in our lives, that’s exactly what it is meant to do. But what a crying shame, what a disservice we are doing to ourselves and to others, if we come to the holy pages of this book with an “it’s about me” mentality.

If we can humble ourselves long enough to realize the power that is in these words, the fact that it is through THIS text that God reveals His own character to us, His children - it will forever change the way that we approach the text and everything about our lives forever.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16

God breathed HIMSELF into this HOLY text for you to KNOW Him deeper. For you to KNOW His grace, His love, His sacrifice, His sovereignty.

Take a minute to reflect on the truth of 2 Timothy 3:16. Pray and ask God to reveal any selfish motives that you bring to your time in the Bible. Identify how that selfish posture of your heart is hindering you from knowing Him deeper, confess that to Him, and pray for a heart that is pure every time you begin to study God’s Word.