Where Do You Look for Answers?
In the age in which we live there is an endless supply of places to look for information. You can download apps to your smart phone and or other handheld devices that give endless sources of information. Google and other search engines provide lists of websites that match your search criteria. Bookstores are full of books that address the topics in which you are interested. Ask a question on social media and you are likely to get replies from many “experts.” Talk show hosts pontificate on a variety of subjects, some of which they actually have knowledge on. Family and friends often can be of immense help to us if we would just ask. Sometimes even if we do not ask, those same people give us their two cents.
The challenge comes not from finding enough places to look for information but from being able to know which are reliable and which are not. Is the answer based upon fact or is it just an opinion? Is there credible evidence to back up the data? What is the source of the information? Has this information been “time tested” or is it some new theory? Is it based upon current trends or something from fifty years ago? These are all questions we need to ask when trying to gain insight or knowledge of a particular topic.
With so many available sources of information, deciphering good information from bad information gets increasingly more challenging. Ask ten people and you are likely to get ten different answers. Sometimes that information changes minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
It is true that as we grow and mature, our understanding sometimes changes, causing us to see things differently than we had in the past. That is different than what is so seemingly prevalent today – with so many so-called experts and so many agendas trying to be advanced, I sometimes find myself confused and struggling to know what to believe. It is as if I am trying to navigate the forest in complete darkness, continually bumping into trees, rubbing up against poison ivy, twisting my ankle on the uneven ground, walking in circles, never getting too far. Maybe today you feel the same way.
We do however have one source of information that is always consistent, always reliable, always dependable, and always true. This source always has your best interest in mind. That source is God. You can find the answers to living life the way it is intended to be lived both by going to God directly and by reading His Word as found in the Bible.
In Proverbs 2:6 we see this about God – “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
Psalm 119:105 says this about the Bible– “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
When we read the Bible under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit it becomes alive and active (Hebrews 4:12). The words on the page invite us in. We begin to be transformed. We begin to see life and truth as God sees them. Next time you sit down to read your Bible, ask God to open up your mind as you read, and see what happens!
Saint Ephrem of Edessa, a fourth-century Syriac Christian said this of reading the Bible for the first time – “I read the opening of this book and was filled of joy, for its verses and lines spread out their arms to welcome me; the first rushed out and kissed me, and led me to its companion; and when I reached that verse wherein is written the story of Paradise, it lifted me up and transported me from the bosom of the book to the very bosom of Paradise.”
So, I ask, are you asking Jesus for what He is ready to give? Are you allowing His Word to rush out and kiss you? Are you allowing His Word, His light, to illuminate the dark?
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