I have a confession.

I am one of THOSE husbands.

By that I mean there are times when I’m mid conversation with my dear wife when it dawns that I haven’t really been listening to a word she’s been saying.

Was she just telling me about something trivial? Have we just made plans? Or had she asked me to do something for her?

The answer being...I don’t know because I wasn’t listening.

I have another confession.

Sometimes I’m like this in my relationship with God. Too busy, too distracted, my mind too full with other concerns to stop and listen to what He has to say.

Because a day without reading my Bible is effectively a day I’ve stuck my fingers in my ears and said to God “la la la laaaa I’m not listening”.

It’s the Bible that contains His words to us.

Words that explain how He created the world and mankind (Genesis), words of poetry (Psalms), words for practical living (Proverbs), words that speak about the future (Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation and others), and of course words about His son Jesus and his perfect life (the gospels).

God has caused all these things to be written so that we might understand Him and what a relationship with Him looks like.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

(2 Tim 3:16-17)

In other words, its the ultimate self-help book - it teaches and trains us, it shows us where we’re going wrong and helps us replace bad habits with good ones.

But how can it ever claim to make us complete?

Well that brings us back to the author; God. Completeness to Him involves an understanding that we will always have character flaws. It means He knows that we’ll never quite rid ourselves of the “bad” but that He looks beyond that when we have a faith in Him that is shown in our way of life. Key to this is a willingness to listen to what the Bible has to say and to do our best to live to its standards.

So let’s marvel that the awesome creator of our world has chosen to speak to us...

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

(Isaiah 55: 10-11)

...and resolve to take the Bible off the bookshelf, to open it, read it, and to listen to what God wants us to know

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

(Romans 10:17)

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