The Word of God is a powerful thing - no one can escape being affected by it. But so many times it is misused and manipulated. It is compared to a sword. I don't know if you've encountered swords much, but most of the time a sword is not something we think of to make us feel all warm and fuzzy. Unfortunately, many in the Church as a whole today like to use the Word of God to make them feel all warm and fuzzy... but that is not the purpose of it. The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word of God should make you uncomfortable. There should be parts of Scripture that you don't like! There should be parts of it that offend you. Say what?! It's true - if no part of the Bible challenges us and makes us uncomfortable than we are no better than a Pharisee thinking that we have it all together. We don't - none of us do. I would go as far to say that we should seek out those sections of Scripture that we don't like and those should be the ones that we study the most. We all like to go to our favorite Scriptures - the ones that encourage us - as we should. But we should not neglect the ones that challenge us, offend us or make us uncomfortable.
It is time we look at Scripture as a whole and stop manipulating it to meet our needs. So many times we find Scriptures to back up what we want to say and use it to align with our opinion and circumstances. Instead we should make our opinion and circumstances align with the Word of God. I have been guilty of it myself quite often, but you know what - I am sick of it! I no longer want to go through the Word looking for what I want to say - I want to look through the Word and let God show me what HE is trying to say.
Lord, forgive me for manipulating and misusing Your Word. It is a precious gift and one that I have often used incorrectly. Thank you for ALL of the Word - the parts that encourage me and the parts that convict me. I don't just want part of You, I want ALL of You. All of You is what makes me complete.
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