Do you remember the first time you were introduced to the principle of sound waves with that age-old question: “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” I first heard that in fifth grade science and my head spun for days on that principle (and maybe still is). I’m wondering, though, if something similar can be said for our experience in Scripture: If we hear it, but don’t do it, could it be that we didn’t actually hear it? God is on a redemptive mission to conform us to the image of His Son. One of His chiseling tools is His Word. But it takes our obedience for the chiseling to happen, which brings us to the third of three requests for engaging Bible study: Application. This is experienced in the request: God, Change Me! (Found in Gentle Exercise 6 here.)
Maybe you’ve heard the carpenter’s phrase: “Measure twice. Cut once.” The point of that phrase is obvious: double-check your measurement to make an accurate, one-time cut. This saves time and materials. You could say the same for Bible study. Measure twice: God, Show Me! God, Teach Me! And then cut once: God, Change Me! Here’s the thing: If we don’t get to the “change me” request, I wouldn’t say that we have wasted our time, but we have certainly missed the point. Curiously, in the well-known passage about “accurately handling” Scripture (2 Tim. 2:15), the Greek word we translate “accurately handle” is actually a word from the discipline of carpentry.
After seeing what God wants to show us and learning what God wants to teach us, the probing question is simply: “What do I need to do?” This answer can come in many forms. It can be an internal adjustment to make. It can be an outward act of obedience. It can be adding to, or subtracting from, our picture of God. As you can see, that’s probably the most important question we could ask that guarantees true engagement in God’s Word. You can find the exercise here or the link below.
Thank you for journeying along,
Prayers!
Barry Shafer
barry@inword.org
Gentle Exercise 6: “God, Change Me!”
Get all the gentle exercises, so far, here.