Every year, people make New Year's Resolutions. Getting in shape or changing one's diet for weight or health reasons is probably the most prolific resolution. Some succeed, others get halfway there, and others miss the mark right out of the gate. The problem with this resolution is that people don't like changing a major part of what this goal calls for. They don't change their habit of food intake. Some don't like the exercise part. However, for most, the intake of wasted calories is the biggest concern. Overeating or bad food choices are hard habits to break. If you ask those who have been successful and have kept good eating habits, it is because they studied a plan, took the information seriously, and practiced the requirements until those became a lifestyle. Practiced is the operative word. They put what they read and studied into action.
Another New Year's Resolution that comes and goes within the Christian Community is reading and studying the Bible. Of course, many get bogged down once in Leviticus or Numbers. If they make it through what can be two of the most cumbersome books, they eventually hit Chronicles. Chronicles, with all its genealogy, does most eager readers in. Fewer of those who started finished well by this time.
Reading through the Bible is a noble goal; sadly, for many, it is a goal of wasted spiritual calories. Even for the avid reader who finishes the Bible, including reading Revelation, it has no impact spiritually. There is no need to be in the category of those whose reading plan is filled with wasted spiritual calories.
What are wasted spiritual calories? Those whose reading plans are self-congratulatory or as a braggadocious accomplishment. Those who accomplish that mission without the necessary purpose of seeking areas of admonishment, teaching, letting the Scriptures bring correction, and then acting on them have done nothing different than those who lose weight only to look good. You'll look good, but if there are no lifetime changes, it's only a moment of glory.
Much of the literature of the Bible is historical and descriptive, so reading it to see how God deals with man is informative. Those parts make for good reading. What does this person do with that which is prescriptive? Unambiguous directives and teaching made clear, demanding change. Those passages that require spiritually motivated diet changes, repentance, and lifestyle alteration can be read through, glanced over, moved from or stopped at, acknowledged, and changed through surrender over what the Holy Spirit brings conviction. The choice in these moments is vital for the good calories to help establish spiritual muscles.
I can hear some hesitation and comments such as, "I don't read through the Bible for this reason." I study the Bible for application. I read through the Bible for knowledge, familiarizing myself with it." I will ask, "Was there nothing in that reading time where your spirit wasn't quickened, and conviction was brought to your heart?" I am sure every follower of Jesus' simple read-through has brought those eye-opening moments where God called them to correction and allowed a text to bring training in righteousness. When we glance over or excuse stopping to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit says, those times have become wasted calories. We "merely listened to the word and deceived (ourselves)." We were being instructed to "Do what it says." And we did not. We may have gained more knowledge. We may have gained a quotable passage. Even a verse that answers a question in a debate, but we've neglected to do what the passage instructed, and therefore, we have become deceived.
As we each decide to read God's Word this 2024 year, I pray each will accomplish this amazing responsibility. Then, more importantly, I encourage each of us to take in God's Word, but not as wasted spiritual calories. Gaining knowledge that puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1) but neglecting to become doers of what God has commanded or all that Jesus taught accomplishes nothing. Now, one read-through won't allow us to master the truths in the book. Still, I believe one read-through, neglecting to become doers of the things God is putting on our hearts can be spiritual calories that puff us up, and we find that we are overweight and out of shape spiritually. We were hearers only, neglecting to exercise the spiritual practice of being a doer of God's Word. I know the work of becoming more obedient to God takes time. We have a lifetime to gain spiritual muscle. And this over taking in wasted spiritual calories is the purpose every time we pick God's book up.
It takes hearing and doing to accomplish the ends, like a resolution to get healthy where food and exercise are concerned. The right food and daily exercise. Spiritually, we have the right food, but we must practice putting what we are reading into effect. It is hard to believe that taking in God's Word can be wasted spiritual calories. Yet, James says it is so: if we merely listen to it (read it, study it) and do nothing with it, we will stay spiritually flabby, gaining knowledge but walking no closer to the Lord than someone who doesn't know Him. Be careful not to neglect the doing of God's Word, and not be a hearer only. The latter is what it looks like to take in wasted spiritual calories.
Comentarios