1180. Weekly News + The Practicality of Digging Deeper

This week’s news confirms that our nation contains a lot of people who don’t know what they’re talking about. This doesn’t stop them from proving it over and over again. It seems like those with no answers to our real problems have the loudest voices and garner the most attention.

While this is to be expected from the unsaved, many Christians these days seem content to live on the fringes of biblical knowledge. They are happy to be identified as a “Christian” and they love to hang out with other Christians. They love the fellowship and enjoy hearing a message from God’s word. It’s an escape from the struggles of everyday life. Life is hard and often exhausting. They see Christianity as Christian fellowship, and they see Christian fellowship as a time of ease and refreshment. The last thing they want to do is engage in anything that resembles everyday life-especially diligently studying anything, even God’s word. They are happy knowing that they’re heaven bound, and they are content to hang out while they wait for the Rapture.

The problem with this approach is that discovering the freedom-bringing truth of the Bible is like hunting for buried treasure. Deep down they know that anything worth having is worth working for, but they haven’t transferred this truth to spiritual matters. They are not yet convinced that there’s really any treasure worth hunting for. They don’t see anybody in their Christian circles who seem to have found any such spiritual treasure, so they assume that it must not exist. Why work for something that offers no reward? They assume that when Jesus said, “Seek and you will find,” He must have been speaking metaphorically or allegorically.

Eventually, we all reach a point where we see where our shallow approach has taken us. We want more, a lot more. Our superficiality hasn’t changed anything, especially us. We’re tired, worn out and defeated. We long for real peace. We want rest from all our struggles. We need answers. We wonder if the promises in the Bible are really possible right here, right now.

The most common remedy for this mentality is witnessing a life that has truly been altered and transformed-a life that displays the peace, joy, and confidence you and most of those around you lack. Your search to discover the “secret” of such a person will always lead to the same answer. A life that consistently displays victory is certainly the result of a willingness to dig deeper into God’s word. It started with faith in God and grew into a life that knew there was more…a lot more, but it would require some digging. But just like buried treasure, the reward is always worth the effort. Check out Hebrews 5:13-14:

Here’s the way it works. The deeper we dig into God’s word, the more convinced we become of God’s faithfulness as a promise keeper. When we have seen Him consistently stay true to His promises throughout history, we expect Him to do the same in our own lives. When we expect Him to come through in the midst of our trials, He is more than ready to greatly exceed our expectations. He loves to reward those who display confidence in Him in the midst of their trials. He takes even greater pleasure in rewarding those who are so confident in Him that they seek Him more than His answers (Heb. 11:6).

Once we start displaying consistent faith, He will reveal the lies that have kept us in bondage. He will also reveal the truth that will set us free-the truths Satan has worked so hard to keep from us. These revelations come only from digging deeper. We have to become so disillusioned with our spiritual walk that we are willing to do whatever it takes to be set free.