How is He Going to Use THAT?!?

 

Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.  2 Timothy 3 :16-17

 I read a verse like this and immediately my mind goes to the opposite. For example, what are we going to learn from a verse like Psalm 38:7, “For my loins are filled with a loathsome [disease]: and [there is] no soundness in my flesh.” ? Then I think of this bit from Tim Hawkins:

 Yes, we can probably learn something from everything in God’s Word. You just have to recognize that not every verse is for every moment. God brings us to different places in His Word in different ways at different times, differently. Yeah, I did that. Here are the ways our verse today tells us that God’s Word is used in us:

Teaching:

 There is so much to learn in scripture! We see how to live and love, how to find God and how to exist in beautiful relationship with Him. We learn from the mistakes of our brothers and sisters in the past. We are taught God’s way of moving and breathing in this world. I’m pretty sure I will never learn it all, that I will never run out of new things to glean from God’s Word.

Reproof:

 Reproof is pointing out someone’s errors or wrongdoings. While it may sound harsh, sometimes it is clearly what we need. Unless we are told that something is wrong, how will we know? We can’t do better until we know better. No one I know likes being told when we are wrong or doing something wrong. It doesn’t feel good. But it is so important to have those people, or tools in our lives that will step out and let us know when something isn’t right. If I was to take a completely impersonal, non-emotional example, reproof would be when someone told me I had a brain tumor. I know reproof usually has more to do with behavior and choices in life but bear with me. Someone had to look at an image of my brain and say, “That’s not right. That shouldn’t be there.” They weren’t telling me what to do differently or how to fix it, they were just pointing out the obvious. That’s reproof.

Correction:

 Correction, on the other hand, looks at something wrong and tries to fix it. While reproof would tell me I have a brain tumor, correction would ask, “Have you considered taking it out?” Both are helpful. Both are necessary. Sometimes correction feels a little less stinging than reproof, but also sometimes it is a little less effective. Thinking back to raising children, you can only say, “Please shut the door quietly” so many times before you have to say, “STOP SLAMMING THE DOOR!” Reproof often happens in a flash. I realize all of a sudden that I’ve done something terribly wrong. It still happens way more often than I’d like! Correction, with its gentler voice, seeks to redirect me and show me a better way to live.

Training in Righteousness:

 Both of the previous things often come as a result of training in righteousness. As Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Her infamous words offer grace for our past, when we didn’t know any better, and correction for our future, now that we do know better, we ought to do it! Through God’s Word we are trained in how to be more like Him, how to please Him with our lives, how to work towards hearing from Him, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

 Through God’s Word we get to read the example Jesus set for us while He was on Earth. We get to read the proverbs God entrusted to Solomon to pass onto future generations, teaching us about wisdom and good choices. We get to see the ups and downs of the early church and learn from their mistakes so we, hopefully, don’t repeat them. All of this training is done in conjunction with the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts and illuminating His Word.

Capable:

Through teaching, reproof, correction and training, God’s Word makes us capable of living the life He has called us to. Having His Word hidden in our hearts prepares us to make decisions, act and react with grace, and show His love to the world.

Equipped:

 By God’s Word we are equipped to… do everything pretty much! I was looking for the right words after equipped to and every possible scenario came to mind. Every situation we encounter in life can be seen through a Biblical lens and approached accordingly. No, the Bible doesn’t mention the internet, or cell phones, or cars, but the concepts behind what we are doing or where we are going or how we are interacting with others around us are there and they are solid.

Here's the Thing: The author of the LGG blog wrote in her post for this morning, “We have been given all we need through the pages of Scripture to do God’s work in the world and to live out our lives in righteousness.” I can’t agree with this. I believe we need more than just the scriptures, we need God Himself at work in our lives, illuminating them to us, bringing them to mind in the right moments in order to make use of this incredible Gift He’s given us. Is the Bible all we need? No. But it is a HUGE gift and help in our lives, and a primary way of connecting to God and growing to be more like Him day by day.