Moment Of Spiritual Reflection: Why & How We Approach The Word Of God Matters Most

Moment Of Spiritual Reflection: Why & How We Approach The Word Of God Matters Most

Most of the quarrels fights among Christians are caused by selfish passions and wrong means of satisfying our desires (James 4:1-3). Paul warns and reminds believers in Ephesus that, “our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12). If only we can take to study the word of God to have the succinct basics understanding of what matters most in this life, there would be minimal troubled lives among Christians. The purpose of my writing is not to express how little or much I know, but to walk with the one who would humbly and in love might need to know or to be reminded of the basics of what matters most in this life and life to come. We will start by answering some of the important questions related to understanding and having faith in God through his word.

The following are Some of the crucial questions that each of us ought to ask while reading, interpreting, teaching, preaching and exhorting self and others with the word of God. How can I access the riches of the word of God? Who is the word of God all about? Who is the focus of the word of God? To whom are we connected to through the word of God? What are our expectations from the word of God? How do we respond to the word of God to match our expectations? What is the role of prayer in gaining knowledge and transformation of our lives? What is the role of our character of humility and love in approaching the word of God? Its not easy to answer these questions unless we search the word of God. Note that this is basically a reflection on the topic and not an exegetical, hermeneutical, or even an academic theological discuss. I will limit these series of eight parts reflection questions to extremely basic understanding to avoid complexity of explanation.

Part 1: How can I access the riches of the Word of God?

The word of God is an extraordinarily rich resource in all matters of faith and life. How to access these riches matters most. At some point during his ministry, Jesus responded to the thoughts and plans of the Jewish leaders who were accusing him of breaking the sabbath and calling God his own father, and thus were seeking to kill him (John 5:18). He said to them, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40). Jesus was referring to the scriptures that we call Old Testament. The person, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the heart of the Old Testament teaching.

When again Jesus appeared to two of the disciples walking to Emmaus, he rebukes them because of their lack of understanding and slow of faith. He said to them, ““O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). They did not understand what the word of God meant about Jesus suffering and entering into his glory (Luke 24:26). Jesus explained to them, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27). We do not have content of the discussion that Jesus presented to these two disciples. But we know that ‘beginning with Moses…” is a reference to the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (Torah). Therefore, Christ and his teachings in the Gospels is the access to understanding and believe in the word of God. He not only has the keys of hell and death (Rev. 1:18), but also the keys to open the wealth of the word of God. We can neither understand the word of God nor have everlasting relationship with God without him (John 15:5).

To be continued…

Rev. Andrew K. Mugo

Moment Of Spiritual Reflection: Why & How We Approach The Word Of God Matters Most