Introduction:
Do you have a relationship with God? If your answer is “Yes,” I want to ask you another question. Do you really have a relationship with God? How well do you know Him? Do you read the Bible to grow closer to God, or are you like many people who, if they read the Bible at all, just read it for its stories or for those nuggets of wisdom they can apply to their own lives? When was the last time you gazed adoringly on Him as you read the Bible?
And when you pray, do you spend most of your time either asking God for things or informing Him of what’s going on in your life, rather than seeking to grow closer to Him? In short, are you far more self-centered than God-centered? Be honest with yourself and think about these very important questions. Please don’t just breeze past this paragraph without stopping and pondering.
It’s alright to admit that you have little to no relationship with God. If that’s true, then it’s best to come to grips with it and determine whether you would like to change, to grow.
Many, perhaps most, people are bored with prayer. They don’t feel close to God. If they are honest with themselves, they’ll admit they really have an inner urge to ignore God all day long.
Let me say, first off, I understand. Do I have a relationship with God? Yes. Definitely. Is it as wonderful as I’d like it to be? No. Am I growing in my relationship with Him? Yes, by His grace and at His pace.
The bottom line is that I have my good days and bad days as I pray and meditate on God’s Word. As the saying goes, I’m not the man I want to be, but praise God, I’m not the man I used to be.
If you are a Christian, do you spend regular time in private study of God’s Word and in prayer? You may call it your quiet time, your devotions, your meditations, or make it part of your daily routine without giving it a name.
But the question I have for you is this: Do you have a deep and rich time with the LORD? Do you pray for God’s nearness to you throughout the day? Do you ask Him to reveal your root sins to you that you might please and love Him by repenting and asking Him to remove that sin from your life? Do you turn from your natural bent of self-centeredness to God-centeredness?
If these seem like hard-hitting questions, they are meant to be. I am lovingly challenging you and hoping to excite you as you begin to read a book that could potentially change your life and your relationship with God forever.
There is a characteristic cycle to the Christian life, and as we spend time in God’s Word, meditating, reading, and praying, this cycle becomes more evident and beneficial for spiritual growth and closeness to God. This is the cycle of appreciating God for who He is, realizing how we fail to measure up to who He calls us to be, repenting and seeking His forgiveness, and ultimately, appreciating Him for the grace and mercy He shows us in forgiving our sins.
For example, let’s say you are really enjoying God’s presence and having great times of meditation and devotion with Him. Then, whether suddenly or slowly, perhaps you are tempted and fall into some sin, or perhaps you simply become aware of a sin that has always been a part of your life and has characterized your thoughts or actions.
You might wallow in your self-contempt for a while or let your guilty conscience keep you from spending further time with the Lord. You will likely be feeling guilt, shame, and frustration with yourself and your inability to change.
But if, instead, you take all of this to God as you read Scripture, pray, and meditate on Him, you may be better able to recognize both the guilt and shame you’re feeling as well as the root sin involved in your heart.
By God’s grace, sorrow and repentance for your sin should follow as you gain a deeper understanding of Christ’s mediation for your sin. You should recognize His forgiveness in that moment. And as you are restored to right relationship with Him, your worship and love for God should flow out via the Holy Spirit’s work in your heart.
Have you experienced this cycle? If not, perhaps a more God-focused, deeper, and more meditative time spent with Him will cause God to do a new work in you.
Ultimately, my goal in this book is not to teach you how to read and understand the Bible better, but for you to get to know God better, to understand Him more fully and love Him more deeply.
Instead of reading the Bible for what you can get out of it, like a life manual or a bumper sticker providing your inspirational quote for the day, this book will help you begin to read the Word and ask, “What does this passage reveal about God?” After all, who is the Bible really about? What is its purpose? The Bible is primarily about God unveiling and revealing aspects of who He is!
With the goal of knowing God better, one of the main emphases of this book is developing your Christian meditation. Christian meditation focuses on reading Scripture, filling your mind with its truths, and musing and reflecting on God. It’s often mixed with prayer as well as journaling your thoughts, insights, and observations about who God is and who He is calling you to be. It’s time you spend in stillness, realizing and knowing that God is God.
What you believe about God affects everything in your life. Therefore, meditating on His character is one of the most important things you can do in your Christian walk.
In this effort, you might begin to ask yourself questions like: Do I really even desire God, or do I tend to ignore Him? Do I want to change myself in light of who God is? Am I willing to discipline my mind and my heart? Am I open to God’s grace through the Holy Spirit? Am I humble, or am I filled with pride and self-centeredness?
Centuries ago, Nathaniel Ranew wrote a book entitled Solitude Improved by Divine Meditation. He recognized that the greatest use of the mind is to meditate on God. But Ranew did not view meditation as a mystical process. Christian meditation is not the repetition of a word or phrase again and again until our minds are emptied. Rather, for him it was a deliberate and focused contemplation of who God is as He is revealed in a portion of His Word, and what that reality means for us. In Ranew’s words, this kind of meditation is the “grand improver” of both prayer and of Bible reading and studying.
Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me,” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NASB).
Are you still unsure whether you want or need to read this book? Consider the following questions, and then answer them honestly – not to me or to the person who might have suggested this book to you. But be honest with yourself before God.
When was the last time you spent significant time studying God and His character?
Do you regularly meditate on God’s character and ponder who He is?
When you read the Bible, do you read it to come to know God better?
What is it about Christianity that originally attracted you to it as a religion? Does it still attract you? Are there things about Christianity that make you uncomfortable?
Does God Himself attract you, or are you merely interested in the benefits you hope to derive from Him?
As you can perhaps tell by this introductory chapter, this book is not intended to be a light read. When done well, a study in the attributes of God requires both emotional and intellectual efforts.
If you will be honest with yourself, you can expect to face weighty truths about God and about yourself. And as part of the process, I trust you experience an increased intimacy and a deeper relationship with God Himself.
Instead of just a casual acquaintanceship, I want you to learn how to adore God. By God’s grace, may you learn how to pray and read the Bible well. May you learn deep and rich truths about who God is, and may you also dispel myths in your mind that you may have about Him.
And along the way, may you learn more about who you are and what it means to be a child of God in His Kingdom. May you learn both about His glory and how to glorify Him. And may James 4:8, by God’s grace, apply to your efforts as you read His Word: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
I am inviting you to begin this journey. Are you ready? Are you eager to understand God better and to adore Him? Let’s begin and seek God together that we may adore Him more fully!
Soli Deo Gloria!
~Keith