How to Know You've Read Your Bible

How can you tell if you have truly read your Bible? The answer is straightforward. If your reading the Bible does not provoke you to prayer, then you have not truly read your Bible because you have not met with its Author in the reading of it or realized His purpose in causing it to be inscripturated. You may have had your eye to the page but you did not have your ear to the voice of your God.

For example, if you are reading of the remarkable reform through Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 30 and come to verse 9,

"For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."

how can your heart not be stirred to hope at the assurance of your God and His tender offer of compassion? How can you keep silent at the reminder that your God is gracious and merciful? How can you avoid feeling the weight of your own sin and guilt in your turning from God, as you identify with the original audience of the text? How can you refrain from crying out to Him in confession and repentance? How can your parched heart not be driven to drink in the waters of life in Jesus Christ, in whom God's mercy and grace are poured out in your life? How can you not slough off the onerous and defiling burden of your sin at foot of the cross where the faithful love and uncompromising justice of God meet in your sacrificed Substitute, where your confession draws from the bottomless well of God's forgiveness through the cleansing blood of your Savior?

One of the goals of CHOP is to train us to recognize and respond to the God who reveals Himself, His wisdom, His remarkable dealings with men recorded in His Word for our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. We need to learn to linger, to listen and to love the God who has brought us into relationship with Himself and who wants us to grow to know Him in splendor of His glory and grace as He speaks to us in His Word.