It’s that time of the semester for me, time to study like crazy and finish my classes well. Hopefully I have been learning what I need to know all along and this time won’t be one of filling my brain with new information but of simply making sure I can adequately regurgitate what I have already learned.
One of my favorite devotionals in my Women’s Bible has to do with this idea of last minute studying. I remember it was about a younger woman asking an elderly lady why she spent so much time reading her Bible. The elderly lady put it quite well, “I am cramming for finals!”
In reality, we all should be cramming for finals when it comes to studying our Bibles. Not to be macabre, but none of us knows when our last minute on Earth will be. We also do not know when Jesus is coming back. How much better to be caught working on our understanding of God and trying to become more like His Son than for Him to find us so wrapped up in our earthly concerns that our Bible is gathering dust.
I have to admit that the more I study God’s word, the more I find I need to study His word–and I am a Biblical Studies major! In a way it is like science, the more in depth you study and discover, the more there seems to be to find. The Bible has opened up in a way that I honestly never expected or imagined. Far from being a dusty, old book, it is filled with life as exciting as anything I have seen Hollywood dish up.
So I agree with that elderly lady, who I imagine by now has aced her final exam and has heard her Father say, “Well done good and faithful servant!” We do need to be reading as if this life and the one to come depends on it. There is power in God’s word to sustain us and guide us as we navigate our life and prepare for eternity.
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
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