Why Use the Bible to Go On With Your Life?

 

Why use the Bible to go on with your life? Years ago, this question would never come up because everyone knew the Bible was the answer. Times have changed though haven’t they?

I recently reminded someone that they are a Christian. Yes, it’s true, if you can imagine that. I asked this person why they would consult ungodly and secular people for mental, emotional, and spiritual help. They acted like they had never thought about it like that before. I shared how it might give them a temporary reprieve from the current bondage of mental stress and emotional pain, but most definitely it would be back. They had already tried this type of avenue once before, but it didn’t work. Why? Because the group of people trying to help this person did not understand what the real problem was nor where the person was broken. They were more focused only on the actions of this person changing. Not the reason for the actions. And I’m not talking about what bad thing happened to them.

You might be thinking, “Well, if someone is genuinely a Christian they really aren’t broken.” If you are thinking this, you would be correct. The truth is that a new Christian has been re-created, made brand-new, and given a fresh start–ONLY spiritually though! Do they understand what all they were freely given and how to tap into that and use it to live their new life in Christ Jesus? Nope! Not until they hear it from God’s Word, the Bible, and it “clicks” with them and changes how they think. So, until that happens, there is a part of their Christian life that makes no sense to them. There is a missing link. In their mind, will, and emotions, there isn’t a bridge that takes them victoriously from their old way of living over to their new way of living. Their new life will only become a reality after using what was given them at the time of their re-birth. They received that life when they went from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive in Christ but if they don’t know they have it, it is not being used, right?

Let me speak to you personally for a minute. As a born-again believer in Christ Jesus, there is only one way to fix you if you see yourself as broken. That way is through hearing the truth about what happened to you when you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Your mind needs to be renewed to the truth about the new you. Maybe you are someone who was never taught this at the time you received Jesus as your Savior or anytime afterwards. Maybe you were only taught that Jesus died on the Cross to take the punishment for your sins and that He has forgiven you. When I got saved as a young girl, I remember feeling like there was an expectation immediately put on me with these words, “Go and sin no more.” In other words, “Now you have to stop sinning, Dana!” The denomination I was in was very focused on sin and actions. The expectations were huge to “act like a good Christian” even though I hadn’t even had my mind renewed to the new me yet! It’s like, something was out of order. Something was missing that would have helped me. Can you relate? I’m excited to go into this more in later posts.

Unfortunately, many newly born-again people are using their own human will power and human self-control to try and break human bad habits. It’s a lost cause but they aren’t being told that, so they keep trying and trying. It’s like there is constantly a dog fight going on between their old nature and their new nature. Soon, after trying to be good and losing the fight every single day, they become frustrated, give up, and go right back to doing it all again. A vicious cycle that becomes a life of merry-go-round living and ditch hopping! Merry-go-round living is never doing anything different to get a different result and ditch hopping is jumping from one ditch to another. People who live this way make movement, yet it’s only jumping out of one destructive way of living into a different one. When they finally find out, through the Bible, that their old sinful man nature is gone forever, they realize that the real fight is only between their new nature and their old habits. Does this make sense?

In my case, I went from the ditch of worldly and hypocritical Christian living, to living in the ditch of man-made religion, which seemed to put me in more bondage than my previous lifestyle.

This is why I wrote the book OFF the Merry-Go-Round and ON With Your Life and why I started this website and blog ON with Your Life. My hope is that the teachings I share from the Bible and my life stories will set you free from ditch living and merry-go-round riding, especially unbiblical religious merry-go-round living. More on that later.

Ok, let’s get to the question at hand and title of this blog. Why use the Bible to go on with your life? I said it! The Bible. Some people are embarrassed or scared to say they have a Bible, let alone say they read their Bible. Reading the Bible and allowing the truths in it to come to life in my life, saved my life so many times.

If you read these two Scriptures (Modern English Version) and take the time to allow your mind to think about them, they will answer this question. Particularly focus on the parts I bolded.

 

It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)

 

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

 

These Scriptures are only a couple of examples I pulled out, but they clearly state that the words Jesus spoke are life and that the words in the Bible Scriptures are inspired by God to teach, rebuke, correct, and instruct us in righteousness. God wants us thoroughly equipped! We won’t even know what we are equipped with unless we read (hear) the Scriptures that talk about it.

If you aren’t learning what the Bible says about God’s true nature, His love for you, and your new identity in Christ, how will you know what is available to equip you for everyday victorious living? I mean, who honestly wants to give their life to Jesus and then limp through their life losing every single day in the fight to change how they act.

I know from experience that sometimes we just don’t feel like reading though and especially we might not feel like opening our mouth and speaking words of LIFE over a situation that appears to be unchangeable. Whenever I was at a maxed-out point of discouragement, the best I could do was to stick in a cassette tape (yes, that was a while back) or CD of someone else reading the Bible out loud to me as I just laid on the couch. This was better than not doing anything except cry or listening to other non-life-giving things. But the real power came to get me off the couch when I opened my mouth and spoke what God said. Believing it and declaring it. Even when I could only repeat what the voice on the cassette tape was reading, it was still life giving and brought strength. It usually didn’t take long before I would be encouraged in the Lord enough to get up off the couch and get things done that needed done. I had a family and needed to stay focused. I might not have had faith in what I was saying at first, but soon I did. Me hearing my own voice speak out Scriptures from the Bible was telling my mind truth that it needed to hear. It was my own voice reminding my own mind to change what I was thinking about and believe what I was hearing in the Bible. Faith came because of the life and truth that was in the Bible. Just like John 6:63 says, “The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.”

That one Bible verse right there should be enough to convince you why you should use the Bible to go on with your life. It’s a start though. A seed planted. I hope this stirs you up to get out your own Bible and start reading words that bring life and truth into your situation. Get the physical book, if you don’t have one, not just the Bible app. Go ahead and mark it up and underline words that seem to jump off the pages to you! They will do the same for you as they did for me. God’s life-giving words will take you from spinning in your Christian life, to winning in your Christian life. Do you believe it?

 

You are so loved!

 

Dana