It’s not hard to warm up in the summer.
In fact, if you’re in a part of the world where air temperatures exceed body temperatures, you do everything you can to stay cool.
But in the fall and spring and you see glorious sunlight through streaming through your window, it seems to be as warm as a summer day.
When you head outside, however, you quickly find yourself deceived. The air is cooler than you anticipated and the sun isn’t quite as toasty as you hoped.
But even on those days, if you can stand the coolness long enough, you begin to warm up. You feel the rays. Warmth slowly soaks into your pores.
You can’t rush the process. You can’t make the sun warm you up any faster. But if you give it time, it happens. But there is no substitue for time–it’s the only way to truly feel the warmth.
Spending time reading the Bible is exactly the same. It is the Word of God. It warms us as it reveals who God is and who we are in light of him.
I often want to feel the warmth instantly. To see God revealed quickly. I want a microwave-type heat instead of the slow warmth that the Word offers.
But God’s word is meant to be taken slowly. To be meditated on. We must let it warm us up. We can’t rush it. We can’t force it to elicit warmth that can only be felt by dwelling in it, mulling it over, dawdling with the Father.
I know this is true. I’ve experienced this truth. And yet I still open the Word and expect instant warmth.
Just as the sun’s warmth is (essentially) always the same, so too is the Word always the same. It’s our environment and orientation that changes how it feels as we come in contact with it.
Come and rest in the Word. Take it slowly. The effects will come. It can’t help but change us as we approach it with reverence and expectation as the Holy Spirit works.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
–Hebrews 4:12