Below is Part I of a two-part devotion from my friend Michael Neveu.
Apologetic Summary Statement:
We need the Bible because God did not call His children to wander through life by instinct, appetite, slogans, and lucky guesses. He gave us His Word so we could know Him, recognize truth, resist sin, endure suffering, practice love, and walk toward the kind of success heaven actually represents.
Tonight’s devotional is about the reason we need the Bible.
Or maybe, more honestly, it is about why we sometimes think we do not.
That is usually the deeper question. Most people are not bold enough to say, “I have outgrown the Word of God.” They simply live as if the Bible is a spiritual keepsake, something lovely on the shelf, like Grandma’s old plates that nobody uses because apparently holiness is too fragile for weekday dishes.
Watch this. Scripture was not given as decoration. It was given as bread, sword, mirror, medicine, lamp, warning, correction, and comfort. God did not hand His people a vague religious ornament and say, “Good luck down there.” He gave us His Word because He wants His children to succeed.
Now, we will be careful with that word success. Our culture has done to success what toddlers do to wallpaper with crayons. Biblical success is not simply money, applause, health, influence, comfort, or winning every argument on the Internet, though humanity continues to audition for the role of “least supervised species.”
Biblical success means becoming faithful, wise, holy, useful, steady under pressure…more like Christ. It is the soul learning to walk straight in a crooked world.
And God has given us what we need.
- God Is All About Success.
God is not indifferent to whether His children stumble through life blindfolded. He has given us real help for real existence.
He gave us A Savior, to redeem us from sin.
We are not self-rescuing creatures. We are sheep, not helicopters. Christ came to seek and save the lost, to redeem us through His blood, and to reconcile us to God. That is the foundation of all true success: not self-improvement, but salvation.
Biblical citations: Luke 19:10 NASB; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 5:8–10; 1 Peter 2:24.
He gave us Each other in lovingkindness.
God did not design Christian life as a solo hike through a minefield while everyone else claps from a safe distance. We are called to bear burdens, encourage one another, forgive one another, and love as Christ loved us. The church, at its best, is not a club for the spiritually polished. It is a household where mercy has work clothes on.
Biblical citations: John 13:34–35 NASB; Galatians 6:2; Hebrews 10:24–25; Ephesians 4:32.
He gave us the world and everything in it.
Creation is not accidental scenery. It declares God’s glory, provides daily mercy, and reminds us that our Father is not stingy. The world is wounded by sin, yes, but it is still filled with witness: sun, harvest, breath, beauty, provision, and enough evidence of divine order to embarrass our laziness.
Biblical citations: Genesis 1:31 NASB; Psalm 19:1; Psalm 24:1; Romans 1:20; 1 Timothy 4:4.
He gave us a real Adversary, permitted by God, who forces the question of faithfulness into the open.
God does not tempt anyone to evil, and Scripture is plain about that. But God does permit testing, resistance, and spiritual warfare. The Adversary exposes where we are careless, proud, asleep, or flirting with the door we should have locked. He means harm. God overrules for formation. Even opposition can become training when the believer stands under the Word instead of under his own cleverness, which is usually a broom handle pretending to be a sword.
Biblical citations: James 1:13 NASB; 1 Peter 5:8–9; Ephesians 6:11–17; Genesis 50:20; James 4:7.
He gave us The Holy Spirit, who guides us into truth and strengthens our life with God.
The Spirit is not a religious mood. He teaches, convicts, comforts, empowers, and bears witness to Christ. Without the Spirit, we reduce Christianity to memory work and moral effort. With the Spirit, the Word becomes living instruction in the hands of God.
Biblical citations: John 14:26 NASB; John 16:13; Romans 8:14–16; Galatians 5:22–25.
He gave us The Bible, the inerrant Word of God, given to make the servant of God complete.
Scripture teaches us what is true, exposes what is false, corrects what is crooked, and trains what is weak. It is not merely information. It is formation. The Bible does not simply tell us about God; it brings us under the authority, mercy, holiness, and promises of God.
Biblical citations: 2 Tim 3:16–17 NASB; Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12; Isaiah 55:10–11; Joshua 1:8.
In tomorrow’s Part II of this devotion, we will examine some more fascinating points on why we need the Bible.