I saw this picture on Instagram the other day from The Daily Grace. It stopped me and made me think about how often we do this. How often we look to scripture to see what we can get out of it for ourselves. When we look at the story of David and Goliath how often is the take away that we can slay the giants in our lives?
When we look at Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me) how often is the take away “I can do all things”.
I’ve seen taken out of context more times than I can count “God is within her, she will not fall” based off Psalm 46:5.
While there are truths in these sayings, we are missing the heart of God in our reading of His Word when WE are the focus! When we read scripture to see what “feel good” things we can get out of it we only skim the surface of the depth of His Word - we build our faith on sunshine and roses and when the trials of life come, we find out our foundation wasn’t all that deep and the things we thought we believe come crashing in around us.
But what if we put on a different set of lenses when reading the Word? Instead of seeking what scripture says about me- we seek the truth of what it says about God? When we have this lense on we read that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and we focus on Christ! When we read the story of David and Goliath, we don’t focus on David’s slaying of the giant, but our God who gave him the strength to do so.
When we look to see God in scripture, we see the whole picture- in Psalm 46 we see it isn’t talking about an unshakable woman, but of our unshakable God.
Easter is this weekend- and it is not untouched by this thought. When we look at Jesus’ death and resurrection from the viewpoint of what it does for us, we only scratch the surface of the beauty of His sacrifice. Yes, His sacrifice brings us abundant life (John 10:10), cleanses us, grants us entrance to the throne room of grace (praise Him!) but when we only focus on us- how quickly can we come, worship on a Sunday at church, and then go home- living our lives with little thought to Him until next Sunday when we are reminded?
When we come to the Word, seeking Him- who He is, what His sacrifice was, how big His love is, His grace and mercy- we are brought to our knees in worship- our hearts cry out with songs of thanksgiving and praise that don’t just come once a week, but resound day in and out. Seeking Him brings heart and life change, not perfectly, but in a way that draws us closer to Him.
The beauty of this is that when our hearts seek Him first- our foundation strong, because He is the Rock of our foundation. When we seek Him we find our identity- not in ourselves, but in Him.
We find our strength, not in ourselves, but in Him.
Our giants become small because we see that He is big.
As we come into Easter weekend, may our knowledge of who He is and what He has done be the foundation of what it means for us.
May it bring us to our knees in worship to the only One who is worthy of honor and glory.
May our hearts cry for more of Him and less of us.
May we seek our precious Savior.
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