The Don'ts

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1569. Today's Devo is called The Don'ts.

Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Good morning, everyone. Stephanie here, and let's continue in our Devo series about how to read your Bible. Today I'm going to be diving into the things that you should not do when you are reading your Bible. I am reading from Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 in the NIV version, which says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your straight your paths. But I just love how it says, do not lean on your own understanding, because we could do that whenever we read the Bible. So let's dive into it. The Bible needs to be read correctly. So here are some things that can that we can stay away from. And let me share with you an analogy as to why this is important. I don't know about you what side you're on, whether it's friends or Seinfeld, but I'm a Seinfeld girl. And some of you might like friends, and that's fine. That's fine. Live your life. If you think it's funny, that's on you. Okay. If you think friends has a good sense of humor, you are right where you need to be. That's totally fine with me. But on my side, I'm Team Seinfeld. I do think it's the best uh sitcom to ever be made. Um, it is funnier than friends. Sorry to break it to you, but it is. It's just, you know, it's comedy, it's humor. So I am of a Seinfeld girly. And maybe you could put in the comments below if this doesn't offend you, if you could put which side you are on. Are you on Team Friends or are you on Team Seinfeld? Um, and of course, if any kids are watching this, you are not allowed to watch those shows until your parents allow you to. Okay, do you hear me? You wait, you wait until you are allowed to watch those shows. Anyways, the reason I bring up those shows is because if somebody were to come to you and say, I've never seen Friends, I've never watched Seinfeld, where should I start? You would tell them season one, episode one. Now, what if somebody crazy said, Hey, just go to season five, episode 19, and you'll be fine. You, as the committed viewer, would be like, No, you got to start from the beginning because you got to know the context. Because they may say an inside joke in season five, episode 19, that you won't understand because you missed all the other seasons, all the other episodes, the whole story, the romantic dynamics, all of it. You gotta start from the beginning for you to understand what's happening in season five, episode 19. Well, the same thing can sometimes happen in the Bible. Yeah, you do gotta start at Genesis 1 sometimes. Every once in a while, start from the beginning, start from the beginning of that book, start from the beginning of that chapter, so you could read the entire context of what the scripture is telling you. So, three things to not do when you are reading your Bible. Number one, ignore context entirely. Some readers treat the Bible like Bible roulette, randomly opening up to a verse and expecting it to speak directly to their immediate circumstances. And the danger with this is it's similar to the analogy I just shared with you. You're reading things out of context. You don't know what happened two chapters before with Jesus, you don't know what happened with Moses or with Abraham. You got to read the full story. And if you are finding it hard to understand something in the Bible, which happens all the time, then my encouragement to you would be to read the entire chapter. Read the entire book if you have time. Some books can take you literally five minutes to read, 10 minutes to read. Sometimes it takes a couple days, but it gives you the full story, it gives you the full context. Number two, imposing your own framework onto the text. Pretty much you read a story and all you see is your own perspective in it. The danger with that is our own perspective is not aligned with the author's perspective. You have to go in completely refreshed. Don't ask, what does this mean to me? Instead, ask, what was the author saying to its audience? And also, it's very wise to look at the culture of that day. Go on Google, go on chat, use your resources, be careful with the stuff that you read, of course. But it's pretty accurate to look at the history and the culture of that day. And sometimes it'll give you a more accurate understanding of what the story is telling you. And then number three, and this is a big one, don't use scripture for debate if that person does not read their Bible. If there's a situation where you're with your church friends and you guys want to discuss a scripture verse, have at it. That's fun. But when you're with family that isn't saved yet, when you're around friends that don't have a relationship with God yet and don't read their Bible on a daily basis like you do, it can actually do more harm than good. They're in a different headspace. They don't understand the things that you understand. And they'll get there. Keep praying for them, keep believing for them. But for right now, just be an example to them. You know, you and I, we are walking Bible verses. And every single day you're with that person, you could show them scripture without reading a word. So pray for them and just be a good example to them. Your life is the greatest example of scripture to others. So that's my encouragement to all of you today. Try to go in fresh when you read your Bible and see how you read your Bible differently. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for the transformation work that you do in our lives when we read our Bible. I pray, God, that if there are any perspectives, any biases that we bring into our Bible, I pray that it will be silenced so that we could read your word authentically. And we do this all with a heart that wants to know you authentically, God. We want to get closer to you. We want to know your love. We want to know your heart. We want to know your mind. And we want to come into alignment with that, Jesus. So, Father, silence all the voices, silence all the biases, silence all the perspectives that just may not be aligned with you, and allow us to walk in truth. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we know that the truth sets us free. And in Jesus' name we all pray. Amen.

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