I love my Garmin! For those of you who aren’t runners, you may be wondering what I am talking about. Garmin is the premier brand of running watches on the market. This past Christmas, my wife and kids spoiled me and got me the Garmin Forerunner 920xt. It will do everything. It gives me time, distance, pace, and alerts. It will also do the same for my bike rides and swims. It syncs with my phone and lets my wife live track my events and training runs. (Wait a minute… Is that last feature something I wanted? Or that she wanted?) The one thing that it can’t do is make me get up and run. There is no electrical shock if I don’t move my body. Thinking about it, that might be a feature I need to invent. My watch has a bunch of great features, but it can’t make me go out and get active. I might be more motivated because it has a ton of cool features, but the watch itself isn’t going to force the issue.
Our Bibles are very similar. We might find the most incredible looking Bible in the world. It may have every note that you could hope for. It might have a thumb-index and be the perfect color. But none of that matters if we don’t crack it open and use this book. In the pages of the Bible, God gives us hope, instruction, salvation and purpose. I don’ know how many times I have had someone ask me about knowing God’s Will for their life. Eventually, the conversation will turn to how much they are reading the Word. In most cases, those that seem clueless to God’s Will are also clueless to God’s Word. There are some exceptions to that statement, but God wants us to know His Will. In His Word, we can find it.
Psalm 119:105 say, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (ESV)
It is clear from Scripture that God wants to give us guidance from His Word, but we refuse. We give all sorts of reasons. I’m tired. I don’t like to read. I can’t understand it. It’s boring. And, the list goes on. However, God’s Word has life for us. The simple truth is that we must crack the pages and dive in.
I run because their is great benefit to my life. The watch is just a tool that helps. My relationship with God has an even greater benefit than running. Will you crack open your Bible today?