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Q. How is reading the Bible like a conversation?

A. In conversation, we need to provide an open place where the other person is granted the time, space, and freedom to speak. We need to come to God's Word with the same sort of openness we might offer a friend who's let us know they have something important to tell us. In fact, that's just it—the Bible does have something important to tell us, if we'll have the grace and wisdom to hear it.

When we find ourselves trying to listen to someone whose speech is slow or deliberate, the great temptation is to finish their sentences for them. The same is often the case when we listen to God's Word, particularly to those passages with which we think we're familiar. But one of the great proofs that Scripture is alive is its ability to speak afresh through passages I thought I knew by heart. In fact, I might have known them by "head," but not until they came alive in the heart had I really begun to listen.

Adopting a listening stance before the Word means keeping your mind as quiet as possible and letting the Bible finish its sentences, its stories. This will bring freshness into your time with the Word. We fail to truly listen when we read only for theological or doctrinal affirmation.

The simple act (sometimes not so simple) of quieting the mind and heart, and allowing the Bible to speak as if it had never spoken in its own voice to you before, will transform your time with the Word, bringing a new freshness. Be quiet, be patient, and let it say what it has to say!

Michael Card, a singer and songwriter, is the author of Scribbling in the Sand.

Adapted from Scribbling in the Sand (InterVarsity, 2002) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law.—Psalm 119:18

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