He makes his home in me.
And I, I live inside
this house of love,
his banner flapping bright above,
his pleasure my desire.
I bring him blooms to grace
the place he sets for me
(no matter that, outdoors,
corruption slimes the world
and evil lurks in gray).
I will not fear. For he is here,
my God, and where he is
we live in love. He who made
the jasmine and the violets
for his delight and mine
smells the worship in my offering
and smiles. Together we
will garrison my strength
against the storm here where it’s warm.
What does it mean to you, the truth that if you are God’s child, he lives in you? I know it takes a while for this to become truly relevant to a believer. Then, once the reality hits home, how does it influence the way that their relationship with God is understood? At first he seems far away, a God who loves his people but is seated on his throne. We keep on waiting for Jesus to return. The Spirit is to be our guide, our counselor, but we cannot see him.
And yet the Word says:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20 NIV)
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (Eph. 3:16-17a NIV)
Christ lives in me! Christ dwells in me—he makes his home in me!
When I began to purposefully set time aside to be with my Abba Father, my Master, my Jesus, I was still very young. All I did was read a few verses, pray briefly to put my concerns in his hands, and launch into the day.
Then InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, at MSU, taught me how to apply the inductive approach to leading Bible studies. We used it in groups, and it was a few years later that I realized I could apply it to my own time in the Word. It requires just three simple steps: observation (the facts in the text, who/what/where/when/why/how), interpretation (what does the text mean? what principles are underlined?), then application (how does this apply to me and to my context?)[1].
After a while, constant practice began making use of this method my new normal. It increased the impact of Scripture on my life and deepened my love for that “quiet time” set apart each morning for the Word. Eventually I added in journaling. Then my mission experiences made me yearn for yet deeper growth, and I researched spiritual formation—an ongoing passion.
A primal truth was beginning to become rooted in all this, one I had been taught since I was a child but that had not had much impact on me: that Jesus lives in me!
. . . God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27 NIV)
I was now married, learning that, when you live with someone, you need to talk to each other and truly share life. It is the only way for love and mutual understanding to grow. Jesus lives in me through his Spirit, and that is where all my hope has firm roots. In fact he is in me, and I am in him!
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Rom. 8:1 NIV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV)
In this context, being “in” Christ refers to being in a relationship with him, belonging to him. So how could I work at strengthening that astonishing, amazing relationship?
The Word of God is available to me, in my language. I can study it, not zipping through some daily ritual of a few verses then moving onward into whatever was going on. It is nourishment for the soul, like daily bread—what we beg for in “The Lord’s Prayer.”
I know that many who are in the Lord’s Family are consistently having a daily “quiet time.” So I was taken aback by a title in the April 2023 issue of Christianity Today, “Wasting Quiet Time: If daily devotionals aren’t yielding true Bible fluency, is there a better way?[2]” Reading it, I saw that the authors were reacting to evidence they have seen in their ministries that “Bible literacy has been on an increasingly steep decline” in the United States, even for those who have daily “devotions[3].” They attribute it to “micro-dosing,” a practice of dipping into a few verses, even at random, instead of devoting oneself to true immersion in the Scriptures, which is often called “Scripture engagement.” Evidently surveys have shown that a smaller percentage of Christians even read the Bible daily than in the last decade, and many of those who do read it are not interacting with it in such a way as to find it applicable to their growth.
We can turn that around! Those authors recommend a greater emphasis on communal reading of Scripture, and that definitely has value, especially in contexts where it is not only a liturgical reading of a passage but also group discussion. That is where inductive study in groups is so useful.
But I am positive that meaningful individual interaction with the Word, applying oneself to truly understand passages in context and be spiritually nourished, is essential. We cannot depend on community reading alone to meet this need. Each of us can learn to do what contributes to our growth by doing what the Lord warned was necessary:
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” (Matt. 4:4 NIV, cf Deut. 8:3)
For those of us who have the Word at our fingertips, available in audio format as well, not digesting the Word is like being invited to a feast that includes all the most nutritious and delicious foods in the world and walking right past it all. If we let the Lord bless us with this food, we are strengthened, as John said in his letter:
I have written to you, children, that you have known the Father.I have written to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one. (1 Jn. 2:14 NET)
Knowing God, relishing his taking up residence in us, walking through life with him and being increasingly strengthened, is fundamental. It is an intimate relationship, sharing every minute, every incident. If we ignore this undeserved, gracious benefit, it is as if we move in with someone and then every day say, “Good morning!’, walk out the door and treat them as no longer a companion.
And it is obvious that what he has told us, what he gave us in his Word, is key for knowing him and what he is teaching us. We are not to treat the Scriptures as a snack, but as our basic food. When translating what Jesus said, that he is the “Bread of Life,” into Nyarafolo, we had to decide what word to use for “bread.” There is a borrowed word used for the French baguettes brought into the country through the colonists, used as a side dish or quick snack along the road. A translation consultant explained that using it would not communicate the truth in this context, that this is not an occasional treat but refers to the staple food (for Jews, the hearty bread accompanied with other sauces etc.). We grabbed that truth and used the Nyarafolo word for the basic starch that was for the daily meal, the “food.” And I learned a delightful truth. In English, “bread” referred to a side dish as well. Whereas when God gave manna to the wandering Israelites as their staple food, it was all they had to eat while in the desert. It was perishable, though, and so were those who ate it. But Jesus is the Bread of Life:
Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (Jn. 6:49 NIV)
Jesus lives in us, and we live in him (digest John 17:13-23 for Jesus’ words about this amazing relationship and what it means). We need to get to know him better and better, not only thinking about what that means when we take communion. He left his Word with us, and we need to respect it as our staple food. Let’s enjoy the feast, and find ways to really pay attention to it, not wasting our daily “quiet time” but finding true nourishment there.
We’ll be investigating various study methods in the coming weeks, ways to truly do that! Peace to all of you who are in Christ. (1 Pet. 5:14 NIV)
[1] For more on how to do inductive study, one good resource is https://www.logos.com/grow/how-to-inductive-bible-study/ .
[2] Johnson, Dru and Durgin, Celina. “Wasting Quiet Time: If daily devotionals aren’t yielding true Bible fluency, is there a better way?” Christianity Today, April 2023. pp 62-71.
[3] Ibid., 69.
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