Episode #341 Reading the Bible With Confidence – Learning to Enjoy Life with God

Hey, friend. If you've ever felt unsure, unqualified, or intimidated by the Bible, you are not alone. You're in good company. A lot of us have, and that includes me. And today we're talking about how to read the Bible with confidence. This episode isn't about becoming a better Bible reader. It's about relaxing into the truth that God is already at work when you open his word.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 says, "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."

Scripture doesn't lie and scripture is really powerful. But where we can feel intimidated by that is we put on ourselves this expectation of “on my own” I'm supposed to understand everything, apply everything, follow it all, memorize all of scripture, like that's not the case. As we talk about this, I'm not discounting the significance of correct theology or learning how to appropriately interpret and apply scripture to our lives. There's a lot of really great tools and resources and techniques to help us learn how to appropriately approach scripture, but they all start with this one: We don't come depending on ourselves. We come to scripture in dependence on God, trusting that he's gonna meet us there and trusting that he will share himself with us.

When we talk about feeling confident with the Bible, usually that means we feel some sense of understanding it, knowing what to do with it, and not messing it up, or not messing up our approach to scripture. But biblical confidence looks different. It's more like I am confident that God will meet me here. I'm confident that God will teach me what I need. I'm confident that as I show up, God is already here and wants to meet with me. I don't have to force clarity. I can receive it because all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable. He will use it to teach me and correct me and train me in right relationship with him, that God's good plan for me is to make me complete, to equip me for every good work. And I don't have to do that on my own. I don't have to figure out a way to make all those things happen, but I can relax, trusting that God will meet me here. As I respond to him, he will do that in me.

I hope those words even take a burden off of you. You are not meant to use the Bible to fix yourself or fix your life. You are meant to know God more through his word. As you get to know him more, he not only shares more about who he is and what he's like, he also shares about how he cares for you and how you can live as his kid.

And so the confidence that we have in approaching scripture is because we believe God is as he says that he is. He will carry out his word to completion in us, and as we learn and grow, he will keep training us and correcting us and equipping us for life with him.

Psalm 119:18 say, “Open my eyes, that I may behold  wondrous things out of your law.”

We get to go to God, asking him to open our eyes. To reveal himself to us. To open our hearts to receive more truth from him.

James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

Confidence grows as you trust God to teach you, not trusting yourself to figure it out on your own. And there is so much freedom that comes from that.

And so here's a question I invite you to take God today. Whether you've been a believer for 5 seconds or 50 years, there's more that God offers each one of us.

God, what does confidence in you look like as I read my Bible?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

Connect with Jen on Instagram