Some time back we decided to stop and try a new restaurant. We sat down and were given two menus which we went through looking to see what was available. The menu went into great detail to describe the food that was on offer which made one think what it could be like if that choice was made. Suddenly while in the middle of making our selection there was a power cut and we had to leave the place without being able to try the food we had read so much about.
On our way to another place further down the road I began to see how similar this situation is to when we seek to experience God by just reading the Bible. I don’t know about you, but for years each time I sat down and began to read I would somehow have this expectation that I was going to have this encounter with God much in the same way as the people we read about had all those years ago. As I sat there each time, yes I felt God speak to me some times, but I never quite had the encounter I longed for and therefore remained hungry.
Today as I look back on that same experience at the restaurant I realize that longing to have an experience with God can only be fulfilled and satisfied in the fellowship I have with God within my heart and not just through the text that I read. Wanting the text to provide me with this same reality is the same as me expecting to know what the food tastes like by only reading about it in the menu but never ordering it.
We need to see that we will never be able to understand what God is like by just reading the Bible. This discovery is hidden within the doing and the living and not just in the reading. This is why Jesus told us that if we wanted to be free we needed to know the applied truth and not just the one we read and memorized.
-pablo-
Photo by Quote corner
