The Transforming Power of Scripture
My kids and I are working hard on Scripture memory this summer. I allowed them to choose some of the verses but have been otherwise strategic in choosing passages we’ll memorize that speak to characteristics of God I want them to know, to address external struggles or those that will address the sin patterns that plague their hearts.
I chose 2 Timothy 3:16 because I want to ingrain in them the goodness and reality of Scripture–to fix in their minds that the Bible is a living, God-given gift for their sanctification and growth in relationship with the Lord. I drilled it into their minds a couple of weeks ago, telling them that just as it’s my job to train them in righteousness, so is it the merciful work of Scripture.
And then one of my kids asked who was training me in righteousness.
Yikes. I was so focused on their sin, the areas where I saw a need for spiritual growth and correction in their lives that I failed to consider my own need for it.
2 Timothy 3:16 teaches us that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (ESV).
It’s profitable for all of these in my life too. I also need the teaching, reproof, and correction of Scripture. Before I can give it to the teens I serve at church, to my friends, or to my children I must first recognize it as the good foundation of righteousness in my own life. I also must embrace the instruction of God’s Word for my own patterns of sin and great need of communion with the Lord.
Maybe you’re a little like me and caught up in the needs of others–areas where they need to grow in righteousness. Friend, let’s look together to the Word as God’s goodness in our own lives first. With a world around us that demands we trust our own truth, let’s build our lives instead on the Truth that will transform us into the very image of God. As you approach time in the Word, reject the idea that it’s merely a moralistic teaching. Reject the laziness of setting it down and forgetting its teaching. May we instead savor it as the living, breathing means of knowing and being known by our Lord (yep, still preaching to the choir here!).
Meet the Author
Stephanie Wilcox
Stephanie is an avid tea drinker, thrifter, and reader. Stephanie and her husband, Brandon, live in the Pittsburgh suburbs with their three children, where they enjoy participating in serving the body of Christ together. In the constant pursuit of delight in the Creator, you can most often find her outside with her kids, with bare toes in the grass, hiking, or pulling weeds out of her mediocre garden.
