“It is true, it’s all true
Everything they’ve said about You,
It is true, it’s all true
Everything I’ve read about You”
-Rumors by Maverick City Music
I heard those words sung in praise to God and in boldness over a room of people worshipping a few weeks ago. I know God did not work that out by accident; He knew those words would carry new meaning in my life in a short time. Those words, the truth that everything said about God in the Bible is true of Him, embodied my biggest takeaway as I finished the last chapters of the Bible yesterday. I look back in awe of a book that took me a year to finish, not because of its impressive details but because every detail is “trustworthy and true” and therefore worthy of laying my life’s foundation upon it (Revelation 22:6).
After my sophomore year in high school, I saw a girl, one that I admired and respected who had graduated from my school the previous year, post about reading the Bible throughout her first year of college. Her words on how transformative that commitment was hooked me in right then, so I committed to doing the same throughout my first year. Therefore, about the first hour or so of my mornings throughout the past year have been set aside, marked as time to wake up, breathe, make my coffee, journal prayers, and read the chapters of the Word designated for that day by the chronological ESV study plan I followed. Yet what I learned from those mornings did not simply stay in those hours. What I learned is now a lens through which I see God more clearly, a perspective that has already blessed me immensely because of three simple words: it’s all true. Every part of the Bible is true. Every good thing, every perfect characteristic, every bold statement testifying to God’s power is true of Him. A year of reading truths and affirmations of God is easy to piece apart day-by-day, but it is awe-inspiring when the truth of Maverick City Music’s lyrics become more than a song. Instead, they describe the reality of where I sit reflecting today, in a posture of praise that it’s all true. I just praise Jesus for His faithfulness today, for revealing to me that when we give Him our time, He presents opportunities for growth, not obligations and channels for comfort, not chores.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 declares, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” When I first started reading this day last year, I prayed more than anything else that God would keep my heart open to what He wanted to teach me through His word, that He would give me fresh eyes to see the opportunity He calls us to, that spending time with Him would not become a begrudged obligation but a growing desire of my heart. It would be a lie to say I jumped out of bed each morning of the past year with a huge smile and an eager heart to dive into the Word. There were many, many days I woke up wanting more sleep and felt distant from the God that the chapters I was reading described. However, in committing to that first hour of my day, God revealed to me that we are the only ones who miss out when we neglect time with Him instead of opening our hands to what He might just do with that time. My life in the past year testifies to the truth of 2 Timothy 3:16-17; God used those hours, even the ones I felt sleepy and lackluster in, to breathe life into my days, to teach, reproof, correct, and train my mind and heart in His truth. He used those hours as opportunities to rain truth over my days in a world where chaos yells at us from all sides and no firm ground is to be found. The beauty in those mornings that I still carry today was not a result of me fulfilling an obligation; it was always and will always be in God’s ability to create opportunities for growth in my broken heart, to bring me one bit closer to being “complete” and “equipped for every good work.”
If the Word proved itself to be “profitable” and good for teaching and training my heart, how much more did it also reveal itself to be a channel of comfort to my heart. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” In a world of darkness, the biggest comfort we can find is light. In a world where extremist groups are taking over helpless masses, political lines draw deeper divisions than they offer solutions, and lives are enslaved to others, only lasting comfort is found in light so steadfast that it cannot be overcome. The Word is this; it has withstood the test of time. What great comfort it is to read a book that has been read by millions over thousands of years throughout all of the world. What a blessing it is to tangibly hold the words of the Living God in our hands when some have never even seen a Bible nor had access to one in their language. I praise God for letting me read His Word, for placing that desire in my heart because His Word brought the one thing I needed the most last year: comfort. My freshman experience brought a lot of wonderful things; comfort was not one of them. In a time where my world was turned upside down and everything was new, the comfort of a Word that never changes served as the foundation of my days, and it can for you too. When we move past seeing His word as a chore to be read, God reveals that the Bible is a channel of comfort for our hearts, a “lamp” to our feet, and a “light” to our paths.
Today, I just praise Jesus; He does not owe me one thing yet how faithfully did He bring abundant opportunity and comfort out of a tiny, in the grand scheme of things, commitment I made. He will do the same for you. If I had to give advice to anyone after my experience in the past year, it would simply be to find the truth of those lyrics for yourself. Commit, even 10 minutes of your day, to reading the Word of God and rest in knowing that where our human minds are tempted to see commitments as obligations and chores, God sees them as opportunities and channels to bring new growth and comfort into our days. In doing so, we gain fresh eyes to the radical and crazy reality that a God so good that a whole book testifies to His goodness loves our broken hearts; praise Him that it’s all true. In this truth, we get to encounter our Savior: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, ESV). Jesus is the embodied Word. It is far too easy to make the Bible out to be a detached, one-step removed book in our broken world. In reality, it is the greatest love story of our lives. It testifies to the great pursuit for our hearts by a God that designed us, not because He needs us but because He longs for us. Every word was made true by Jesus, by the one who put on flesh to become our Savior, the only true one. He is “the true God and eternal life” as 1 John 5:21 (ESV) declares, and He longs for your heart. Just maybe, today, you commit to learning that truth for yourself, through seeing time in the Word as an opportunity for growth and a channel for comfort, no longer an obligation or a chore. I will be here cheering you on and praying for you in this; it might just be the greatest choice you make today.
With love, C