Why Read God’s Word Over and Over?

Simply based on my observation, reading for personal benefit is mostly a lost asset in our culture these days.  Whether its reading “the classics” like To Kill a Mockingbird, or reading non-fiction to increase knowledge, it seems that most people just don’t read much anymore. These days we seem to have replaced reading with watching.

But even among people who have read To Kill a Mockingbird, you’re not going to find anyone who has read it more than once or twice, and you’re certainly not going to find anyone who reads it continually, even daily.  Why wouldn’t someone read To Kill a Mockingbird over and over, every day?  Because the additional benefit gained from reading that book begins to diminish greatly after the first reading. You’re not going to learn anything life-changing the 3rd or 4th or 25th time you read it.

But this is not the case with the Bible. The Apostle Peter said to Jesus at the end of John 6, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  In John 17:17, Jesus prayed to God the Father saying, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10:17 that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Connecting these dots (and many others), simply stated, the Bible is what Francis Schaeffer called, “true truth” – the most fundamental truth there is – the truth of God.  Such information is bigger than the capacity of the human brain. It is without error of any kind. Therefore, the more a person studies God’s word, the more truth that person will learn. And this process cannot be finished or exhausted.  You can read the Bible 50 times in a row, and still you will learn something new on your 51st reading.  This process increases our faith in God.

And there is an amazing relationship between faith and anxiety. They exist in inverse proportion to one another.  In other words, as faith increases, anxiety decreases.  Do any of you have anxiety?  Let him feast on the word of God!

“Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O LORD, God of hosts.”

Jeremiah 15:16

Blessings, 

Pastor Bruce

bruce.cullom@gmail.com