Welcome to Nancy Guthrie’s guided journal “Hoping for Something Better,” which she based on her book of the same title (Tyndale 2007).
New journal entries will appear in your profile Monday-Saturday for 6 weeks. If you missed any so far, stay subscribed to this feed and you can begin when it starts over. Be sure to start your own journal within your Beliefnet profile or in a notebook to respond to Nancy’s prompts.
Day 12
There is something better than standing over the Bible picking and choosing what we like. It is opening our lives under God’s Word, allowing it to convict and change us.
Read Hebrews 4:12-13.
A lot of people like the Bible. They like to pick parts of it that say stuff that appeals to them. And they conveniently ignore or explain away the parts they don’t like or don’t understand. We’re all prone to doing that.
Hebrews 4:12-13 tells us that if we really want to experience rest, instead of placing ourselves in authority over Scripture, we need to open up our lives under its authority. We make ourselves accountable to its expectations, submit ourselves to its demands, accept its truth. Rather than judging its validity, we allow the Word of God to judge our thoughts and motives.
Our only hope is that the Word of God is living enough—active enough—to penetrate us and change us. This is the way the faith we claim can become an increasing reality in the way we live.
What are at least four things you learn about God’s Word from Hebrews 4;12-13?
What do you really believe about the Bible, and how does that impact how you read and respond to it?
–Nancy Guthrie