Wear New Glasses

I just got some new glasses. I detest new glasses when they are first worn, because of the nausea. It’s a stronger prescription so it is taking some getting used to. Some of us, including myself, need to feel like we are using a different set of eyes while reading God’s word. It is very easy for those of us who were raised in the church to have preconceived notions about what the scriptures will say when we open them. This is not how it should be! We see that Thessalonica had this problem when we read Acts 17:11 and 1Thessalonians 5:21. We ought rather to “take Jesus as He is” (Mark 4:36). When we sit down to read from God’s word, we should allow IT to shape our convictions and beliefs, rather than mold the Bible to what we want. This “new” way of reading may be difficult at first. It takes more time and study. It is much easier to make the Bible say what you want it to rather than to dig deep into it and see what it really says. When we read the Bible the way that we should, it may also be nauseating, in a sense. It seems to me that many do not want to study the word or “get into the whole religious thing” because they are afraid of what they will find. They fear that they will find what they are doing is wrong and that there is a consequence. It is much more comforting and easy to not read the Bible and do what you would like, or to only read Psalms all of your life and make yourself feel good. God commands that we obey HIM and the only way to do that is to know what He wants. We must never obey ourselves. The Bible is not subjective (John 17:17) and we must not treat it as such. I pray that we will all be opening our Bibles and reading what God has to say to us.