Reading Aright

I read a tremendous passage ( on pages 187-188) in a book called "Between Two Worlds" by John R. W. Stott too good not to share:

"...We have to open our minds wide enough to risk hearing what we do not want to hear.  For we have been taught to come to the Bible for solace.  Does not Paul himself write of 'the encouragement of the Scriptures' (Rom. 15:4)?  So naturally we cherish the hope that through our Bible reading we shall be comforted; we have no wish to be disturbed.  Hence we tend to come to it with our minds made up, anxious to hear only the reassuring echoes of our own prejudice.  Moreover, it is not difficult to insulate ourselves against the challenges of God's Word, or to barricade ourselves against his unwelcome incursions.  The very two cultures we have been thinking about - of Bible authors and Bible readers - can act like two layers of thick cushioning to protect us against the impact, sometimes the shock, of the Word he wants to speak to us.  The first step towards opening ourselves up to his Word, is to be aware of the protective padding which has to be removed.  We have to be willing for God himself to lay down the ground rules, and to decide what he wants to say to us, however uncongenial we may find it.  We have no liberty to circumscribe him, or to suggest lines of demarcation within which we are prepared to negotiate.  No, we have to break down the cultural barriers and struggle to open our hearts and minds to listen to whatever he has to say.

...If we read through the whole Bible annually, then after a few years we feel we know it fairly well. The temptation is to become blase' and to come to our daily reading with no very lively expectation the God is going to speak to us through it.  Instead, we should be confident, in the famous words of John Robinson, pastor of the separatists' church in Holland from which the Pilgrim Fathers sailed in the Mayflower of 1620, that God has 'more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word'.  We need therefore to 'present ourselves before the Lord' each day like the angels (Job 1:6; 2:1), to ask for an 'awakened ear' like the servant (Isa. 50:4), and to request him as Samuel did to speak, because his servant is listening (1 Sam. 3:10).  We need to 'cry out for insight and raise our voice for understanding, to 'seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures', for then we shall understand and 'find the knowledge of God' (Prov. 2:3-5).  Such seeking perseveres even in the face of an apparent rebuff.  It lays hold of God like Jacob and refuses to let him go until and unless he blesses us (Gen. 32:26).  It is this spirit of eager and determined expectation which God honours.  He promises to fill the hungry with good things; it is only the complacent whom he sends away empty-handed (Luke 1:53).  Sow we must not give in to spiritual staleness as if it were normal or even tolerable, but must pray for the refreshment of the Holy Spirit so that, if our appetite is blunt he will sharpen it, and if our heart is cold he will rekindle within us the fires of expectancy."