Tomorrow, I’m teaching a Bible study on loving God’s word and what would happen if you actually expected God to use the Bible to change you.
I immediately think of the Bible verses God used at critical points in my life including Psalm 30, Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 16, Galatians 2:20, and 2 Corinthians 5. I think about Romans 8:1 and Jeremiah 29:11 (quoted below). These statements transformed me deeply.
I have a lifetime of God using His word to speak to me, to help me make a decision, to shape my character and my responses to my circumstances, and to most importantly, connect me to Jesus and experience His love and care for me.
I decide to ask others around me today if they can remember a time when God used a special Bible verse in their lives. When I asked a graduate student who stopped by my office, her whole face lit up as she recounted Isaiah 40:31 and how “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” I could see the joy in her face.
Later, on the phone with my dear friend, I asked the same question. Has God used a Bible verse in your life? Her voice sounded like a burst of sunlight as she immediately quoted John 20:31 with profound joy: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name!”
I ask my husband who lights up, too, and quotes Matthew 16:25 and his memories of surrendering fully to Christ. Jesus says here, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Everyone I ask could immediately recount a way God has used His word in their lives. What precious conversations to have with friends! I loved asking this question today and remembering my own journey of God faithfully teaching me and being present with me through His written word.
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Psalm 30: 2, 5 Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. . .weeping remains for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.
Psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
2 Corinthians 5: 17-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Jeremiah 29:11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.