Daily Devotional By Desiringgod Ministry – John Piper Ministry 10 January 2025 | Topic: God Still Speaks
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God Still Speaks
Reading the Bible with Astonishment
A new year of Bible reading is upon us. Some, like the five wise virgins who prepared their lamps beforehand, have already sketched out a fresh strategy to read through the whole Bible or to study select portions; others are scrambling at midnight to find new fuel for the faint light of their ambitions. Wherever you find yourself, the intent to structure your Bible reading in the new year is commendable. We Christians are, after all, a people of the Book.
But why even make a plan to read? Does such planning flow from a sense of duty, the feeling that disciplined daily reading is something you ought to do? Does it come from a sense of shame based on the failure of last year’s good intentions, which perhaps burned to ashes in the fires of the sacrificial codes of Leviticus? Perhaps mere habit propels you to open the Bible each day. Habits of reading God’s word are good; shame for past failure might be helpful if it drives you toward godliness; a sense of duty can serve as a powerful impetus to pursue holy actions.
However, by itself, neither habit, shame, nor duty will lead you to open God’s word daily with a heart posture of humble expectation and joy. Such an attitude toward the Bible comes only from the astonished realization that in these pages God actually speaks.
Book of God’s Breath
When the prophets spoke to their audience — kings or widows, the people of God or heathen nations — they frequently used the introductory formula, “Thus says the Lord.” No miraculous proof was needed. The prophets did not provide detailed arguments to demonstrate that what they spoke was from the Lord. God spoke. Through his prophetic mouthpieces, he addressed a particular person or people. Human as the heralds were, the words were God’s (2 Peter 1:21).
Paul explains clearly that Scripture — all of it — is theopneustos, God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). He entertains no discussion about whether some parts of it are man’s additions or no longer relevant under the present cultural conditions. He holds without qualm to the prophetic formula: “Thus says the Lord.” Scripture is God’s word.
“We have no claim to our Creator’s words, no right, yet he speaks to us freely, opening his heart to us.”
Moreover, Scripture is God’s word. It is the self-revealing word of the triune God, the one who was and is and is to come, the eternally perfect Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the word of the faithful one, in whom there is no variation or shadow of changing, who rules over all things in absolute and perfect sovereignty. It is the word of him who creates and redeems his people to bring them into his own triune fellowship as his adopted children through the lovingly sacrificial work of the incarnate Son. The words of this God are absolutely authoritative and true because he speaks them.
Addressed by God
What does this mean when we open the Bible? Simply and amazingly this: God is not silent. The words we discover in the pages of the Bible are his — all of them. What we find between those leather covers is not a loose collection of texts, jumbled together by a few ancient scribes and holy men and containing bits of wisdom and tips for self-help. They are not merely interesting snapshots of history from which we can draw life lessons or stories we might appropriate however we see fit.
On the contrary, these words are revelation, God’s address to his people by which he makes himself known and through which he calls his people to “fear [him], to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve [him] with all [their] heart and with all [their] soul, and to keep [his] commandments and statutes” (Deuteronomy 10:12–13). And he speaks to us for our good. John Owen writes,
God has gathered up into the Scripture all the divine revelations given out by himself from the beginning of the world, and all that ever shall be so to the end thereof . . . that [the church] may be thoroughly instructed in the whole mind and will of God, and directed in all that worship of him and obedience unto him which is necessary to give us acceptance with him here, and to bring us unto the eternal enjoyment of him hereafter. (Reason of Faith, 85)
God has not left us to fumble along in the dark, directionless, grasping at shadows, hoping to uncover some purpose. He has spoken. In fact, he speaks.
Posture of Astonishment
What creaturely response corresponds to the astounding fact that in Scripture God speaks and reveals himself? If he who spoke worlds into existence, whose voice causes all creation to shake to its foundations, addresses us in the plain, simple, and wondrously deep words of Scripture and through them calls us to our purpose — the eternal enjoyment of himself — then how else can we respond except with astonishment?
Such astonishment will lead us to leap for opportunities to open God’s word and will help us to listen in a posture of humility, gratitude, and joy.
HUMILITY
Astonishment receives God’s word with humility. We have no claim to our Creator’s words, no right, yet he speaks to us freely, opening his heart to us, showing us his character, inviting us to fellowship with him. By such gracious speech, he shatters our pride and sheds light on our dark ways.
Rightly do we tremble at the word of him who sits enthroned above. Rightly do we bow to confess our lowliness and sinfulness before the almighty and righteous God. Astonishment that God speaks leads us to receive his word as creatures — that is, as those whom he fashioned and to whom he gave life and purpose.
Do you open the word in humility, ready to be confronted and brought low?
GRATITUDE
Astonishment receives God’s word with gratitude. That he speaks is a gift. He does not reveal himself merely to shatter our pride and then leave us broken. He speaks to give life. He speaks to heal, to bind up wounds, to free from bondage, to teach commandments, to give wisdom. His words are given, says Owen, that we may be “thoroughly instructed in the whole mind and will of God.” Receiving the word with gratitude means that we do not demand that it meet our preconceived criteria. Gratitude does not reject a gift because it fails to meet expectations but receives it with thankfulness, according to the Giver’s intent.
The best gifts typically come from those who know us best of all. Our Lord — the one who formed us and knows our inmost thoughts and desires, the one who knows exactly what is best for us — has given us the gift of his word. He intends for us to use this gift because he wants us to know and be satisfied in him.
Do you open the word with gratitude, ready to be built up and comforted?
JOY
Astonishment receives God’s word with joy. He doesn’t speak because he is lonely or needy but because he is inviting us to know and be satisfied in him. In short, he is calling us to joy. This is why the psalmist can write, “In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. . . . I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word” (Psalm 119:14, 16). God makes himself known to us. Our joy does not begin when our life on earth ends; our joy begins now because God reveals himself to us and saves us and makes us his children and speaks to us with love and tenderness. He made us to know and enjoy him. To that end, he gave us Scripture.
Do you open the word with joy, eager to hear the voice of the one who made you, saved you, and adopted you as his own?
Open Bible, Open Heart
Make your plans for reading the Bible in the new year. Intentionally carve out time in a busy schedule. Develop a new habit (or revive an old one) of coming daily to Scripture to hear the word of your God. Do it prayerfully and with the expectation that God will answer this prayer. If we come in astonishment, this habit will be far less likely to drop off as the year wears on, for the discipline of reading Scripture will be not drudgery but delight.
In the well-known story of Augustine’s conversion, he heard the voice of a child singing, “Tolle lege; tolle lege” — take up and read. He opened the Scripture, and God opened his heart. Let that song resound in your heart this year as you heed its call with humility, gratitude, and joy, astonished that the Lord of creation speaks.
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