Inspiration, Guidance and Love Letters

If you found a letter written to you by your earthly father, you would no doubt read it so many times that the paper would soon become worn. It wouldn’t become something you knew by rote; every word would instead be taken to heart and meditated upon. As believers, God’s Word should hold the same kind of draw for us as we think of it as a sort of history lesson and guidebook for spirit-filled Christian life, combined with the exquisite expression of our Father’s deep and abiding love for us.

Psalm 139, for instance, tells us that our Father knows us...He pays attention to the most minute details of our lives. In addition to so many similar love letters throughout scripture, the most valuable education we might ever receive also comes by way of God’s instructions for us through scripture. Rather than mandating that we become obsessed with the letter of the law in religiosity, the scriptures offer us a blueprint for our lives as followers of Christ, directly from the heart of our Father.

God’s intention is that we study and know His word so that we can adjust our lives to follow it as well as come to understand it so well that we can easily share it with others. Particularly in the New Testament, the letters assembled clearly point the way toward better serving God through our lives within the church. For example, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, Paul warns the church not to fall into the trap of looking at leaders, or comparing them so that one seems better than the other.

1 Corinthians 4:6 (New Living Translation)

⁶ Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another.

When he wrote 2 Timothy, Paul admonished the church leader to work hard and study the Word so that he could correctly explain it to church members looking to him for guidance.

2 Timothy 2:15 (New Living Translation)

¹⁵Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

As members of the church and servants of Jesus Christ, our life’s blood comes directly from him; and his guidance, inspiration and love for us trickles down from every scriptural word. Like reading a love letter from our precious Father, the more deeply we know and understand scripture, the closer we become to him, and the more enabled we will be to share his love with those around us.

# # #

Sandra D. Bricker is a best-selling and award-winning author of laugh-out-loud romantic comedy for the Christian market. Her most recent book, Always the Designer Never the Bride is the third of a series of four novels in the Another Emma Rae Creation series from Abingdon Press Fiction. Check out her BLOG and sign up to receive her weekly posts by e-mail.  

Sandie leads a team of writers in creating the Living It Out daily Bible study for CedarCreek Church. Today's devotion is borrowed from her Living It Out study on the role of God's Word in our daily lives. If you enjoyed it, feel free to check out the daily studies by e-mail or audio podcast by clicking HERE.