Ephesians 1:17
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
“Wow, that verse was good. Sometimes I get nothing out of what I’m reading, but that time… wow, that was good.” My friend sat back, smiled at his bible and pulled out a journal to start in on some reflection. It’s funny how a few days ago the chapter we had worked through together fell flat on both our ears. We read a few verses, scribbled a quick note in our journals, and moved on with our days. It was almost as if we did it solely to check a box. “Read your bible” took up a line in my planner and now that there was a clean checkmark next to it, I could happily hurry on with the rest of the tasks and to-do’s flooding the page.
But every once in a while my devotional time takes on a whole new look and the words I read in the bible are sweet like honey, warm some untouched place of my heart, and feel as if they’re being spoken straight from God’s heart to mine.
It’s sad how we can miss the deepness of God’s words or feel bewildered and incompetent when it comes to grasping the meaning. I think of my friend and honestly, myself when it comes to daily bible reading and I so badly want every morning to be rich in pure connection with God. Don’t you?
If you’re on the same page, make your prayer one like Paul’s. Paul wrote to the church of Ephesus explaining what his prayer for them was. He prayed constantly that the Lord would give the people of this church wisdom and revelation. Why? So that they would know God better.
He doesn’t pray for the people of Ephesus in order to help them check off the task of “reading scripture” off their schedules. He doesn’t ask God to give them wisdom and revelation so they can hurry up and get the bible reading potion of their days over with. He prays for their eyes to be open, their ears able to hear the good news written so lovingly in their bibles, that they may know God better.
At the end of the day, no matter how high maintenance and hyper-sensitive I am to those little unchecked boxes in my planner, knowing God better is what makes my heartbeat. If I don’t understand scripture, feel like I skimmed through it and didn’t get much out of it, why do I come to a stop and shrug with this “well, that fell flat, too bad” mentality? I’m not sure why I do that, but there is this longing for wisdom and revelation. I want to know God better and if that means researching commentaries on the chapter I just read, so be it. If that means calling a leader or a friend to process through it more, so be it. If that means reading 2 or 3 times, asking Jesus for guidance, so be it.
When we start reading scripture and recognizing every word for what it is, God-breathed and a glorious gift, our hearts change, our minds expand, and we slowly step into a closeness with God that really only comes with reading the bible.
So today, open up your bible. Whether it’s sat on the shelf collecting dust or is right there by your nightstand with notes and highlights staining each page, grab it and open up to a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), and read. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and revelation, read about the gift of Jesus, and know God better with every word you let soak into your heart.