JOSH APPLEGATE / UNSPLASH
Editor’s Note: Each week, we’re publishing a new collection of devotional readings that will draw you deeper into the life-changing Word of God. This week’s devotions are drawn from The Wired Soul: Finding Spiritual Balance in a Hyperconnected Age by Tricia McCary Rhodes, PhD. In these readings, we are invited to consider how we can push back against the influence of our “wired,” digital, quick-paced culture to more deeply and meaningfully engage with Scripture. (You can click here to receive these and future daily devotions emailed directly to your inbox.)
Monday: The Gift of the Word
“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” (Hebrews 4:12)
The leading authority on the neuroscience of language, Stanislaus Dehaene, notes that thanks to modern brain imaging, we now know that every time you or I read a single word in print, the combination of letters moves through our retinas and explodes into thousands of fragments within our brain, which then pieces them back together by asking a series of questions:
• Are these letters?
• What do they look like?
• Are they a word?
• What does it sound like?
• How is it pronounced?
• What does it mean?
All of this happens in a millisecond without our awareness, an astounding feat that causes Dehaene to ask, “How can a few black marks on white paper projected onto your retina evoke an entire universe?”
Think of it: Not only did God choose to reveal himself through words, first spoken and then put into print, but he created you and me with this inimitable capacity to read them. Why?
The most important reason is that we might know him—his ways, his character, his attributes, and his heart—not through the finiteness of an image set in wood or stone but through words that live, that are layered, nuanced, multiform in their power to illuminate, and yet always able to raise us to new vistas of revelation.
Reflect: Read Hebrews 4:12. It is easy to take Scripture for granted; instead, consider this question afresh: Why is it meaningful to you that God communicates to his people—to you—through the written word?
Pray: Spend time expressing gratitude to God for the gift of his Word.
Tuesday: Chose to Linger
“Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 119:27)
We are people who live in an age of perpetual motion, and we tend to wear busyness as a badge of honor. Philosopher and theologian David Wells suggests that “the affliction of distraction” is the greatest challenge of our age, and he goes on to ask, “How, then, can we receive from Scripture the truth God has for us if we cannot focus long enough, linger long enough, to receive that truth?”
Every Christ follower, by virtue of the Spirit who dwells within us, yearns for intimate communion with God. We are made for it. Prayerfully pressing into the Word that he has given us will not only transform our hearts and fulfill our souls but will also lead to more peaceful balance in all the parts of our lives.
Wells so powerfully reminds us of this: if we are convinced that we need, above all, to know God, to know who he is in his character, that will trump every competing interest. But we have to be utterly convinced. . . . Without this ability to stop, to focus, to linger, to reflect, to analyze, to evaluate, we begin to lose touch with the God who has called us to know him.”
The ability of which Wells speaks—to stop, linger, focus, reflect, and so on, in order to know God—may be harder to come by than it’s ever been.
Reflect: Read Psalm 119:27. What specific factors or distractions tend to prevent you from focused time of meditation and lingering on Scripture?
Pray: Name those distractions in a time of prayer, asking God to help you grow in your ability to focus and reflect on his Word.
Wednesday: Ingesting Scripture
“How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey. Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:103–105)
Francis Bacon, known as the father of the scientific method, once wrote about the reading process: “Some books are to be tasted, others are to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Being a religious man, Bacon was probably hearkening back to times when the metaphor of eating a book shows up in Scripture. For example, the prophet Jeremiah offered these beautiful thoughts about ingesting God’s message: “When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies” (Jeremiah 15:16).
Bibliophagy, a real word that is used to describe the metaphor of eating books, depicts an earthy engagement with the words we read that is almost palpable in its effect. Eugene Peterson (in Eat This Book) points out that often our approach to Scripture is to use it for our own purposes—knowledge or inspiration or direction. He exhorts us instead to “eat” it for God’s purposes—to metabolize it so that it changes us: “Christian reading is participatory reading, receiving the words in such a way that they become interior to our lives, the rhythms and images becoming practices of prayer, acts of obedience, ways of love.”
Reflect: Read Jeremiah 15:16 and Psalm 119:103–105. How can eating (devouring, tasting, and so on) serve as a meaningful metaphor for your own interaction with Scripture? When have you experienced this sort of interaction with God’s Word?
Pray: Speak words from Psalm 119:103–105 to God to express your own gratitude for his Word. Use the phrases to guide your own time of dialogue and praise.
Thursday: Real Communication
“But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14–17)
To receive God’s Word—whether reading a verse or two or an entire chapter—means to be thoughtful, disciplined, and deliberative about what we read, which requires a level of focus that may at first be difficult to maintain. But a consistent practice of even ten minutes a day can go a long way toward rewiring our brains for reflection and depth, making it easier for us to increase the time as our desire grows.
David Wells notes that there are three components to every communication—the words used, what the speaker hopes to convey, and the outcome the speaker desires in those who hear—all of which come into play in our interaction with God’s Word. What does this passage actually tell me? What is God seeking to reveal about his heart, his character, his ways, or the motivation behind his words? What response from me does this passage call for?
Whatever the methods we use to focus our minds and hearts on Scripture, we can never forget the wonder that the voice speaking these words to us is that of God himself.
Reflect: Read and 2 Timothy 3:14–17. What methods or practices are most helpful for you in going deeper in your study and reflection on God’s Word?
Pray: Invite God to strengthen your commitment to study Scripture and apply it to your daily life.
Friday: Filled and Formed
“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” (Colossians 3:16)
Jesus told his disciples that his words needed to abide in them (John 15:7-8), a sentiment Paul echoed to the church at Colossae: “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives” (Colossians 3:16, emphasis added). What would it look like for Scripture to live in you, to remain present to you at all times?
We tend to memorize those things—such as oaths, pledges, or vows—for which we believe the language is so important that we have to know the words verbatim. Committing these things to heart, Thomas Newkirk notes, is “an act of loyalty and deep respect, of affiliation.” Memorizing Scripture is all this and more, a tribute to the God who generously reveals himself to us through the gift of language.
Dallas Willard said that if he had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, Bible memorization would be first. He called it “absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation . . . because it is the fundamental way of filling our minds with what they need.” The formation of our souls is God’s intent when he instructs us to store up his Word in our hearts, assuring us that this will help us avoid sin, live purely, keep from stumbling, and find delight in doing his will. He invites us to bind his words on our heart, promising that they will guide us, plant our faith in deep-rooted soil, and nourish our souls like food does the body.
Reflect: Read Psalm 119:11 and Colossians 3:16. What is one particular passage or phrase from Scripture to which the Holy Spirit has been drawing your attention? How might God be using it to form and shape you?
Pray: Combine Scripture memorization with prayer by repeating and meditating on a passage that is particularly meaningful to you.
Tricia McCary Rhodes is the author of several books including The Wired Soul: Finding Spiritual Balance in a Hyperconnected Age. She is an adjunct professor of practical theology at Fuller Seminary. Taken from The Wired Soul copyright © 2016 by Tricia McCary Rhodes. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
