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Key Bible Verse: "These instructions are not empty words—they are your life!" (Deuteronomy 32:47).Bonus Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14

At age 35 I bought running shoes and began enjoying again the smooth rhythms of long-distance running. Soon I was competing in 10K races every month or so, and then a marathon once a year. By then I was subscribing to and reading three running magazines! Then I pulled a muscle and couldn't run for a couple of months. Those magazines were still all over the house, but I never opened one. The moment I resumed running, though, I started reading again.

That's when I realized that my reading was an extension of something I was a part of. I was reading for companionship and affirmation of the experience of running. I learned a few things along the way, but mostly it was to deepen my world of running. If I wasn't running, there was nothing to deepen.

The parallel with reading Scripture is striking. If I'm not living in active response to the living God, reading about his creation/salvation/holiness won't hold my interest for long. The most important question we ask of any Bible text isn't "What does this mean?" but "What can I obey?" Simple obedience will open up our lives to a text more quickly than any number of Bible studies, dictionaries, and concordances.

—Eugene Peterson in Eat this Book

My Response: Does reading God's Word hold my interest? What does that tell me?

Thought to Apply: To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.—Mother Teresa (Missionary to India)

Adapted from Eat This Book (Eerdmans, 2006). All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher.

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Prayer for the Week

Thank you, Lord, for revealing yourself and your will so completely. Please whet my appetite for your Word.

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