Consider What I Say (9-25-11)

2 Timothy 2:7 - "Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."

The Bible is not always the easiest book to understand, and the people who God inspired to write it recognized that. Peter even says, concerning some of Pauls writings, in 2 Peter 3:14-16 - " Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction." But we're encouraged to consider these writings and the Lord will give us understanding in everything. God desires to give us understanding of His word, but He wants us spend time with Him in His word in order that He can give us understanding of it. I often read something in the Bible that I don't understand, and I say "I wonder what that's all about." But I don't take the time to search it out while asking God to reveal His truth to me as I should. Paul encouraged timothy in First Timothy 4:15 to - "Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all." Take pains with these things. Searching the scriptures takes diligence, but God wants us to take pains to search His word in order that He might reveal Himself to us. Understanding comes only from Him. And we need to keep in mind that it isn't by our own ingenuity or intelligence that we'll be able to understand, but only as the Lord opens our minds to learn and our hearts to receive His Word. There are many intelligent people who do not believe the Scriptures because they don't recognize that the Bible is like no other book. If I apply my mind to understand math, I can study a math book and gain a working understanding of the subject. And the same with science and history and basically any other subject. But when we approach the study of God, which is what the Bible is all about, we cannot learn of Him unless He allows us. He is a person not a subject, and a person can choose whether or not to reveal Himself to someone else. Some people will fall into error as regards the interpretation and application of Scripture because, though they may know it, they don't practically recognize that the Bible is a spiritual book, and that if they are going to gain understanding of it, it's going to come by God granting the understanding, not by an intellectual study. If we're not careful to recognize that only God can give understanding of His Word then we are liable to fall into the error that Peter talked about, of taking things which are hard to understand and distorting them, because we're trying to interpret a spiritual book with a natural mind. 
When we approach the study of the Word of God we need to approach it with prayer. Ask God for understanding, and pray that He will keep you from error. When approaching the study of a particularly difficult or controversial subject consider the entirety of the Word of God and remember that God never contradicts Himself. An attitude of dependance is essential, because God alone can give us understanding as we consider His Word. 

Luke 24:45 - "Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."