Some Tools for Devotional Reading
This week rather than sharing some of my devotional thoughts with you, I wanted to give you some tools you can use to interact devotionally with the Scripture on your own. Perhaps you’ll want to share these with your mentee.
Many of us read the Bible informationally. By that I mean we read it for information like we might a newspaper or a how-to book. We read it to get the facts. We want to know the who, what, when, where, and why of a passage, chapter, or book. Those things are important. That’s where we should start in reading the Scriptures. But the Bible is meant to be more than just a source of information about history, theology, or instructions for how to live. The Bible is the Word of God, it is the way the Lord speaks to us. So there ought to be a relational aspect to our reading of the Scriptures. We need to go deeper than just reading for the facts. We need to have an active interaction with the Word.
How do we do that? I listened to a podcast the other day called “The Pastor Writer” by Chase Replogle. He had Phil Collins from Taylor University as a guest and they discussed a variety of tools for interacting with the Scriptures. Here are three that I thought could be helpful for you and your mentee.
1. Praying Scripture. Take the words of a passage and turn them into a prayer. For example, if you read Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” you might pray something like this.
“Lord, as one of your chosen people, as one who have made holy in your sight, as one you dearly love, give me the grace to show compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience to others, just as you have been those things with me.”
2. Picture it. This was Collins’ term. In his book Knowing Scripture R.C. Sproul described something similar saying we should read the Scriptures with empathy. The idea is to use what I like to call a “sanctified imagination” to put yourself into the story.
Take Matthew 14:22-36, the account of Peter walking on water with Jesus. It was late at night. There was a storm. The moon and stars were obscured by the clouds. It was very dark. The boat was being buffeted by waves; the wind blew strongly against it. If you were there, what would you have been feeling? Tired? Anxious? Afraid? Annoyed that Jesus had told you to get the boat and start rowing while he stayed behind? Hungry maybe? Seasick? Are your muscles sore? What do you smell? Body odor from 12 sweating men? Old dead fish in the bottom of the boat?
Then the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water and the text says they were terrified. Don’t just read the word terrified and keep going. Stop and try to imagine what that terror felt like.
Then Jesus invited Peter to get of out of boat and join him. You’re Peter. What do you think? What do you see? What do you feel? When you get out of the boat, how does the water feel on your feet? Is it like walking in the shallows on a beach with water splashing up around your ankles? Or does it feel hard, like walking on ice?
In the passage it says that when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink? Preachers usually say that Peter took his eyes off Jesus. Did he? Does the passage say that? If that’s not what Peter did, what did he do? If you’re Peter is that what you did? If you did take your eyes off Jesus, why did you? What are you thinking and feeling? Do you feel panic? Can you imagine what that panic is like? What do you feel when Jesus grabs you?
Remember that such imaginings are not infallible and should not be given the same weight as the Word itself. But to put yourself into the scene can make the Scriptures go from dry, intellectual information to something that is alive. In can deepen your understanding.
3. Journaling. Keep a notebook with you as you read and write meaningful observations or questions you have. Write out prayers. Copy passages that are important to you. Did you know that Old Testament kings were supposed to make their own handwritten copy of the Word of God? Check it out in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Copying passages is a good way to remember them and call them to mind in everyday life situations.
These are just a few of the tools that Collins suggests. There are others that he and other Bible teachers recommend. The point is to find ways that you can interact with the Bible with a devotional mindset. What works for you so that you can read the Scriptures not just for learning more facts or gaining more knowledge but that you have a living relationship with the Lord of Word?
Much love, Barry