Luke 19:47-48 – And He was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy Him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on His words.

THEME OF THE DAY: TWO WAYS TO READ OUR BIBLES. Ever been so riveted by a speaker, a preacher, a musician, a lecturer, or anyone else displaying the great skill of communication that we were almost in a trance? Their message or song gripped us with such force we lost sense of time and space. We were so absorbed by what we were hearing, everything else just seemed to fade away. I recall listening to a sermon by an incredible preacher that lasted an hour and twenty minutes. It captured me so intensely that when it was over two things were present. First, I was disappointed. I didn’t want it to end. Next, it was so short. Time melted away and the message captured my full attention and nearly ninety minutes seemed like ninety seconds.

Imagine being one in the crowd of people in today’s scripture and hearing the words proclaimed from the Greatest Communicator ever to walk upon the earth – the Lord Jesus. It was said of them, “the people were hanging on His words.” Now, it would be easy for us to say, “Of course they would have done that. I mean they saw Jesus in Person. They were watching His lips, His facial expressions, His use of His hands to illustrate His preaching, and the power of His Words could not but grip them. No doubt they ‘hung on His words’, who wouldn’t have reacted the same way?” Be very careful here. Very careful. We have the same opportunity, actually a greater opportunity than them. We have the complete Word of God in our Bibles and the Author of that Bible, the Holy Spirit, in us and always available to direct us to “hang on every word from the Lord Jesus.”

When it comes to reading our Bibles, there are two ways of doing so. First, we may read our Bibles in a dutiful way. Our reading may be mechanical, mindless, and just something we do out of obligation. I mean Christians are supposed to read their Bibles, right? This type of reading might be checking a box on a yearly Bible reading plan or just systemically reading our Bibles in some area, like the Psalms or Gospels. Whatever the method, this type of reading will not produce a “hanging on every word of Jesus”. We simply won’t encounter Him. We will encounter words on a page but not the Living Word on every page. And how will we know if this describes our Bible reading? We won’t be changed. We won’t see spiritual commitments deepen, but more importantly, there will be no development of Christ-likeness or conformity to His Person.

The second way to read our Bible is the correct way and produces the gripping experience of “hanging on every Word” because the Christian is encountering the Lord Jesus in the Word. This type of reading is not mechanical, dutiful, forced, dull, inconsistent, rushed, or mindless. It is a reading led by the Spirit of God bringing His Book alive and drawing us to behold the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6). And how will we know if this type of Bible reading characterizes us? We long for the Word. We long to discover Christ in the Bible. We will not sacrifice time in the Word. It will be a cherished discipline; a hunger that must be satisfied. When a Christian is encountering the Lord in His Word, they begin to hunger for Him. They want to spend time with Him. And not only will these attitudes toward the Bible be present if we are reading it properly, but our prayer lives will radically change. We will want to communicate with Christ and the primary means God has given us for that to occur is prayer. A proper reading of the Bible always leads to an intimate pursuit of the Lord through prayer.

So, how do we read our Bibles? Are we “hanging on every word”? That is how God wants us to come to His Word and He has made it possible through His Spirit and our diligence.

PRAYER: “Lord, make my heart burn with eagerness to hear Your Word.”

QUOTE: “We may read our Bible and find no profit or we may read it and find Christ.”