Living and Active
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
Have you ever felt like you have heard the same Bible verses a thousand times? For those of us who grew up in the church, it’s easy for us to zone out to the stories we feel like we’ve heard a thousand times.
We know that Zacchaeus was a wee little man, that Noah took two of each animal, and that there really was no room in the inn. Sometimes we become numb to these stories because we are approaching them as just words we have heard or read time and time again.
But the Bible says that scripture is more than just ink printed on a page. About itself, the scripture says that the word of God is “living and active.” Verses are not words God once wanted us to know, but as actual “God breath” on the page. The words are not bound to the book like ink on pages but instead are alive and living as the Holy Spirit uses them to speak into our lives. As we come to spend time in the scriptures, we should ask God to speak to us through the spirit in what we are reading.
I have seen this come alive in a huge way for me in Psalm 139. It has become sort of a foundational block in my faith and I find myself coming back to it time and time again. I have come to those verses in loneliness, in insecurity, in hope, and in desperation. I have read them before big interviews, during rest hour at camp, in fear waiting for a plane to take off and in tears after feeling like I have no control over my life.
The 24 verses on the page are always the same when I flip my Bible open to those weathered pages, but I can read the same words and learn something completely different because of what the Holy Spirit is bringing to me in that exact moment.
I have found security in the promise that God has been with me and is going with me. I have felt known by God for He is the one that formed me and knows even my inmost parts. I have felt confident in God’s promise that He has already written down each day of my life before I even live it out.
I encourage you to not breeze through the familiar passages in the Word. Instead, slow down and ask God to reveal Himself to you in a new way today.