Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path.

This verse is familiar to the point of burnout. We sing it to four different musical arrangements, and probably even the most casual believer in this church has it memorized. Even so, it’s a vitally important truth. We need to know where to take the next step in our lives, and often we have little to no idea where or how to go. I’m reminded of the opening to Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, where the hero is sent on an errand that the person sending him thinks will be the death of him, but a flash of lightning lets him see that the next step would be fatal, and he turns around. Our lives are seldom that dramatic, but they can certainly be that consequential. We need the reliable stability of the Bible as a guide, or we are all too likely to take disastrous steps. I don’t think it would be possible to overstate the importance of regular Bible reading for a successful Christian life. It is incomprehensible to me how many professed Christians seldom if ever open their Bibles. Now, with projectors and the like, they don’t even do so in church, since the pastor’s message notes are shown on the screen. This isn’t to say that electronic methods of reading the Bible are bad, but rather that making it all so passive isn’t a good idea. The Bible is more accessible, at least in the US, than it ever has been before in history, but the irony is that we therefore take it lightly. I have always liked the question my seminary professor grandfather asked his students: “How big is your Bible?” He wasn’t talking about printed matter, but how much was stored up in their hearts. The Bible doesn’t give us the light we need until we take it in and make it part of us. Only then can we be assured of right and wrong, of left and right, and choose our course correctly.

Growing up, my home was steeped in the Bible, and I read it through for the first time by the time I was 10. However, making it part of me was a different matter. I knew the facts, I just hadn’t appropriated them fully as applying to me. That resulted in some poor choices, and an inordinate amount of stupid pride, but God was merciful and gracious to me. I didn’t develop a consistent habit of daily devotions until after the Lord gave me a glimpse of my own heart, at 24, and I collapsed in tearful repentance. I can’t say the road has always been easy since then, but I haven’t taken any disastrous steps. I have no idea how long the road will be from here, since I’m 77, but I know that it will be illuminated by God’s Word, Who is Christ Jesus my Lord. (John 1:1) In Him, I have nothing to be anxious about.

Father, thank You for this powerful reminder. Thank You for the things You’ve been showing me recently. Help me follow through, faithfully saying and doing what You indicate, so that Your purposes may be fulfilled in every part of my life, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!