Jeremiah 2:31
You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD. (NIV)
To consider = to reflect upon, to dwell upon and carefully look at it from all aspects - just as one considers a weighty matter before taking a decision.
Is this the way we read or listen to God’s word?
Jesus had much to say about how we ought to listen to the word of God. After explaining the parable of the sower, he said this.
Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more. Whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken away from them. Luke 8:18
Other translations of the Bible use the words ‘Take care’ or ‘Pay attention’
The writer of the book of James says that our attitude to the word of God should not be that of light and casual listening but one of intense concentration that leads to obedience.
James 1:22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
How am I reading the word of God? Am I just reading it as a daily routine, or rushing through it to tick another box… we are only deceiving ourselves according to James.
The man or woman who considers the word seriously, taking time to understand it, perhaps wrestling with it, who pays attention to it and then goes on to do as it says - such a person will be given more of God’s treasure and strength.
Hi Tony! It is such an encouragement to read your reflections on the importance of reading the Bible carefully and seriously. So often, we can get lured into the plug-and-play mentality where we think that if we read our Bibles, then God has to do xyz.
Instead, we can view Scripture as a mechanism to hear God speaking with us, helping us to, as you said, “understand it, perhaps wrestling with it, who pays attention to it and then goes on to do as it says.”
What change should this shift in thinking cause in our daily rhythms with God?
You have brought out an important principle. We often read the Bible with an agenda that we are not meant to have. I have read the Bible for various reasons - to finish one of the items in my daily routine, to look for a justification for one of my beliefs, to refute someone else’s stand, to use what I read for a sermon or message later or a myriad other reasons. While none of these reasons are wrong in themselves, I have found that I have been blessed the most when I read the Bible to simply to be in God’s presence and learn from him, without any other vested agenda, asking Him to speak to me. What I learn during these times has blessed me and also blessed others.