I must admit that for the past 42 years I have had a love affair with a book – The Holy Bible. The Bible has been my compass, my comforter, and my companion that gives me light on this journey called life. (Psalm 119:105) echoes why I love this book so much: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” There are so many reasons why I love the Bible that I could write a book on this subject, but I hope the following six reasons will show you my most cherished thoughts on this one very special book.
The Bible reveals Jesus to me. The Bible is God’s great love letter to humanity and without it our world wouldn’t know that Jesus is the one true God, the Savior of the world, and the answer to all of life’s big questions. As I read the pages of Scripture I get to know more about our Lord and just how much He loves me and saved me. He also shows me that I am His treasured possession (Deuteronomy 14:2 NIV) and that I will have the awesome privilege of spending eternity getting to know Him better.
The Bible reveals what my ultimate purpose in life is. Life without purpose is a life not worth living. Fortunately, the Bible reveals that our ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And the exciting thing about the Bible is that it shows us practical ways how to do this. We glorify Jesus by praising His name, by always having an attitude of gratitude, by loving our neighbors and enemies, and by living a righteous life.
The Bible shows me how to serve God. The Bible is our training manual that shows us as we study the life of Jesus and the apostles how we can serve God and our fellow man. What a wonderful privilege to know that as we study the life of Jesus, we are learning the greatest lessons on how to live righteously here on earth.
The Bible feeds my spirit and body. The Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 shows that God is concerned about our physical bodies when He tells us to pray in verse 11: “Give us today our daily bread.” But Jesus also more importantly teaches us how to feed our souls. And this is accomplished when we read the Bible which has so much spiritual nourishment for our spirits. Every page of Scripture is chock full of spiritual gold and God gives us a lifetime to mine its treasures.
The Bible helps me to live the Christian life and fend off all the temptations to sin that come my way. The main way we do this is to stay in close communion and prayer with Jesus and to follow the prescription in Ephesians 6 where Paul tells us to put on the armor of God; especially the shield of faith (verse 16) and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (verse 17). Both the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit – the Bible, will fend off Satan’s lies and help us to not give in to his temptations.
The Bible is the master book for stress management. The book of Proverbs is full of wonderful verses on how stress affects us physically. And seeing how Jesus handled stressful situations gives us valuable advice on how we can handle stress. Prayer and praise are two of the most effective ways we can handle life’s difficult trials. (1 Peter 5:7) gives us the best antidote in all of Scripture for dealing with stress when it says: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Never forget that Jesus is our true burden bearer.
In closing we should all be grateful that God has given us the living Word and the written Word. Together Jesus and the Bible make living a true joy!