Bible Study Review – Open Your Bible
~ Today’s Scripture Art and book review of the Bible study Open Your Bible are designed to help with any secret doubts you may have that the Bible isn’t enough. ~
*This post may contain affiliate links. To learn more, click here.
Why do you open your Bible?
Take a minute. Be honest.
Is it because you happen to be at church? Or out of obligation? Out of fear? Looking for answers? Checking off your to-do list? To get to know Jesus? Fill in your blank before reading on.
Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams have written a 7-week Bible study entitled Open Your Bible. These are the gals from She Reads Truth, where the mission is to reach the unreached with their very first Bibles and to invite the already-reached to reach for their Bibles—every day.
Now that is my kind of mission!
When Raechel and Amanda were asked why they opened their Bibles, they shared, “We used to open our Bibles out of obligation. Now we open our Bibles because it feels like coming home. We used to open our Bibles out of fear. Now we open our Bibles for a fresh breath of the truest freedom we’ve ever known. We used to open our Bibles to find ourselves. Now we open our Bibles to find our God.”
And then they added this stunning statement …
“Hear the happy desperation in our voices when we admit to you: We open our Bibles because we just can’t not.”
Wow. Are we there yet?
This Bible study, Open Your Bible, can take you there. In fact, you may get so involved that you’ll finish in four weeks instead of seven! {grin}
It will inspire you and teach you how to approach the Truth, engage the Truth, apply the Truth, abide in the Truth, live in the Truth, and share the Truth.
Ok, at this point you probably fall into one of two camps.
You’re either thinking “Sounds great!” or “Been there, tried it, doesn’t work.”
Am I right?
If you fell in the “sounds great” camp, you are dismissed. Go order the book and get going! You will love it.
Now I’d like to speak to the “it doesn’t work” camp.
Maybe you have questions about the Bible. Or you have secret doubts or don’t understand parts. Maybe you feel the Bible isn’t quite enough for your particular problems. Maybe you just can’t seem to stick with it. Whatever your complaints are, you probably wish you were in the other camp. But you have to admit you’re not.
Not yet anyway.
Raechel and Amanda explain, “God’s Word IS enough because the One who gives it is infinitely enough. He is the source of all truth, and He is inexhaustible.”
If God is inexhaustible, maybe He wants us to reflect that quality.
Side note: Read Be Imitators of God.
Maybe we should keep digging, keep seeking, keep opening our Bible – even when we have doubts or complaints.
Maybe everyone has doubts, but some persist past it.
Hebrews 6:11 (NASB): And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
Would it help to know that this whole “seeking” business is supposed to require persistence?
It’s not supposed to be effortless.
It’s supposed to be a long process (our whole lives).
So don’t feel guilty if you think you haven’t arrived in the Bible department.
None of us have.
All you have to do to be on the right track is: don’t give up.
Luke 11:8-10 (NASB): … yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
1 Chronicles 16:11 (ESV): Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Hosea 6:3 (ESV): Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
Raechel and Amanda truly understand how you feel and they share all about how far they’ve come …
“I hear you, friends. I absolutely find myself feeling less than equipped when I approach my Bible most days. Are you hesitantly leaning in, wondering what I may have to say about the reliability of God’s Word? That’s great – lean on in!”
It’s nice to hear from women who have been there, tried that, and eventually did find God’s Word to be enough.
“To say God’s Word is enough is not to say our need is not real or great. It is not to diminish the struggles of our circumstances or dismiss the validity of our pain. The opposite it true! To say God’s Word is enough is to acknowledge our need as SO GREAT, our pain and problems SO REAL, that only God’s Word and the Living Word – Jesus – can bring real redemption.”
“Only His Word can fill us up. Only His Word meets us at the precise intersection of our need and His provision. Like the bread that fell from the sky to feed God’s people in the wilderness, we must receive and take in God’s Word as our daily bread, our perfectly portioned manna for the day.”
See? I’m not the only one who says this stuff! {grin}
Don’t miss the big neon key in that word “daily.”
There is a reason God gave manna in a portion only big enough for one day.
Matthew 6:31-34 (NASB): Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
So take it one day at a time. Persist in digging in the Bible until you know that God’s Word is enough – for everything.
Because it is.
2 Peter 1:3 (CSB): His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Whether you are a seasoned Bible reader or struggle to keep up with studying Scripture, the Bible study Open Your Bible will leave you with a greater appreciation for the Word of God, a deeper understanding of it’s authority, and a stronger desire to know the Bible inside and out.
“It’s time to make God’s Word no longer ‘what we do’ but ‘who we are.'”
Let’s start today.
*My prayer for you is … that this blog will inspire you to open your Bible every single day to seek God’s face and write His Word on your heart – because HE’S the key to lasting heart change!
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