Returning to God’s Word

The GPS is a remarkable device. Do you use one? I remember just a few short years ago when GPS devices first became popular, you could see units of various sizes suction-cupped to car windshields all over parking lots. Some of them were nearly tablet-sized.

When they were first released, to keep the maps updated, you had to plug the device into your home computer to be updated. If the map versions got too far behind, you’d hear wrong road names and get bad directions.

Now, mapping apps for smartphones have become as common as the phones themselves, providing GPS services for driving and walking. Not near an outlet in the car? No problem as long as the phone battery is strong enough. You can still hear a voice telling you to turn left in half a mile. Or, if you drive too far, “recalculating.”

Maps are helpful. Maps are needed when we don’t know where we are going. Maps are sometimes needed when we forget how to get back to were we started. And, maps can help us when someone has given us wrong directions.

The Bible is our spiritual map

The Bible is our spiritual map. It not only tells us how to get where we need to go, it tells us how to get back to where we need to be. And, it provides correction when we might have been given wrong directions.

Staying on the right road is essential to our walk with God. If we are to walk with God, we must spend time in His Word. No follower of Jesus is strong enough to ignore the counsel, wisdom, and power of the Word of God.

Spiritual renewal is never present if God’s Word is absent.

The Israelites needed God’s Word

When the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem following decades of exile, one of the first things they did was listen to the reading of God’s Word. Nehemiah 8 records the request of the people: “They asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had given to Israel…While he was facing the square in front of the Water Gate, he read out of it from daybreak until noon before the men, the women, and those who could understand. All the people listened attentively to the book of the law.”¹ After a period of worship, the reading continued: “They read out of the book of the law of God, translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read.”² On the next day the people again listened as the Word of God was taught.³

The Scripture was essential to Jesus, too

Jesus constantly referred to the Old Testament in his teaching. One of the central components of His earthly ministry was preaching: “Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”⁴ We cannot lose Jesus’ preaching in the midst of His miracles. God’s word has the same power for us as it had for the children of Israel. To return to God, we must return to His Word, and when we return to God we will return to His word.

Now is the Time to Lead,

Ronnie W. Floyd

Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention

References
¹– Nehemiah 8:1b, 3
²– Nehemiah 8:8
³– Nehemiah 8:13-18