Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God's Word

by Matt Smethurst

I am convinced that a prayerless approach to God’s Word is a major reason for the low-level dissatisfaction that hums beneath the surface of our lives. We rob ourselves of joy and peace when we fail to pray. Indeed, approaching Scripture apart from prayer is one of the most counterproductive things we do. For prayerless Christianity is powerless Christianity.

We must pray earnestly for a united heart, lest it drift toward being divided, distracted, and distant from the words of the living God.

Your Bible is tangible evidence that the Maker of the universe is a communicator; he’s someone who initiates, who reveals, who speaks.

There are, after all, only two options when it comes to knowledge of our Creator: revelation or speculation. Either he speaks, or we guess.

We should never take for granted that the exalted Creator would befriend the work of his hands. But that’s precisely what he did.

God himself is the chef and the host, and there’s a seat with your name on it. Come in.

Your soul will wither and die without your Bible. Approach it desperately.

We study God to praise God. And we cannot praise what we do not know.

“The Bible is the best book that’s ever read me.”

A disobedient believer makes no more sense than a disenchanted bird trying to reach the ocean floor. In infinite wisdom and goodness, God has structured his moral universe in a particular way. We can trust him. If we refuse, we won’t just be breaking his laws; we’ll be breaking ourselves against them.

the early church set an example that is crucial for us to apply: fellowship with others anchored in God’s Word and prayer.

Approaching your Bible well, therefore, is nothing less than an act of worship. You’re walking on holy ground. “The Bible,” writes Jen Wilkin, “is our burning bush.”1

Until Jesus splits the skies in blazing glory and our faith becomes sight, we must live in the age of the ear as we await the age of the eye.