In my last
post, I wrote about learning about God and how important that is. I thought I
would continue writing about this as found in the book, “The Art of Divine
Contentment,” by Thomas Watson. There are many lessons in this book that I
think are helpful to Christians.
The author
says there are two main reasons why we must study the Bible and study what God
is like.
Number
One: Because
spiritual things are against nature. “For men to be justified by the righteousness
of another, to become a fool that he may be wise, to have all by losing all;
this is against nature.”
“For a man
to deny his own wisdom, and see himself blind; to deny his own will and have it
melted into the will of God…crucifying that sin that is dearest to his heart;
for a man to be dead to the world, and in the midst of want to abound; for him
to take up the cross, and follow Jesus…this is against nature and therefore
must be learned.”
Number 2:
Because spiritual things are far above nature.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
“Only God’s Spirit
can light our candle here,” writes Watson. Like the man in the chariot, who needed Philip to
explain the scriptures to him, so we need the Holy Spirit to enlighten our
mind. “We cannot learn till the Spirit
of God shines into our hearts.”
“Lead me in your truth and teach me, For you
are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day.” Psalm 25:5
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26
I’m going to add my own
thoughts here. I’ll call it my number 3 reason for studying the Bible.
Number 3:
In order to love God, we
need to know him. We cannot feel close to a stranger. We cannot admire someone we don’t know. If we are to
love the Lord our God with all our hearts, we must know him.
Every book in the Bible
tells us something about God. If we have trouble understanding what we read
about him, then ask him for guidance and perhaps read some Commentaries on the
Bible that try to explain each verse. I have found that very helpful. There are
good Commentaries on Bible Hub online. They are written by man, so realize they
could be off the mark. But knowing the culture of the ancient people helps us
understand why God dealt with them the way he did.
