Before You Open Your Bible Quotes

“the late American novelist David Foster Wallace captured this universal, even primal, human dynamic. Wallace was not a Christian, and yet his words strike a profound spiritual chord: The compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. . . . Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is . . . they’re unconscious. They are default settings.5”
― Matt Smethurst, Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God's Word

“We must pray earnestly for a united heart, lest it drift toward being divided, distracted, and distant from the words of the living God.”
― Matt Smethurst, Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God's Word

“You may be familiar with praying in response to God’s Word, but what does it mean to pray in anticipation of it? What does it look like to approach your Bible prayerfully? It means not rushing into your Bible reading, expecting the pages to magically microwave your cold heart.”
― Matt Smethurst, Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God's Word