WHEN we read God’s word we should appropriate, take to ourselves and for ourselves, the words we read. Too many read whole chapters of the Bible without appropriating a single sentence, the result of which is, they do not receive blessing from God it is written, “Ye must be born again,” yet scores of unconverted persons read the solemn truth without being affected by it. Did such take to themselves the words, they would seek for mercy. “We have peace with God,” stands before us in the familiar fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, yet numbers of converted persons who read these words are still without peace with God. If there were a taking to ourselves of the words how different would it be!
Again, we often fail to receive a blessing when reading the Scriptures from lack of expectation. Whether expectation can be separated from faith is very doubtful. But certain it is there is too little expectation when reading the promises of God. “Ask and ye shall have,” says our Lord, but if the asking is merely a form of words, it lacks essence, for in ordinary life, we ask that we may have, and expect to obtain. Faith connects the soul with God, and when He answers the question of the anxious enquirer, “What must I do to be saved?” with “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” the really expectant heart takes the word to itself. There is a great danger of reading the word of God, as if it were not final, as if something more had to be said, with a spirit that almost whispers, “Is that all?” Let us stir up our hearts to an expectant spirit, for if our faith has not expectation in it, we may wisely inquire whether we believe or whether we merely say we believe.