Love Letters

I remember the letters my wife Lenya and I would write before we were married. That correspondence sort of nourished our relationship until we finally got together in marriage. At the time, she lived in Kona, Hawaii, and I lived in Huntington Beach, California, and so we would usually write because phone calls were expensive. And you can't go out on a date Friday night because it's a long-distance drive! When I got a letter, I would read it again and again. I would look at phrases and sentences, and I'd imagine her writing it. I would hang on every word, because they were love letters.

If you're married, you probably remember being a newlywed. You couldn't wait to get off work and spend time with the one you loved. Do you remember being newly saved? When you first came to Jesus Christ, the ultimate experience was spending intimate time with God. When you opened up the Bible, you thought, "Wow! God is talking to me in it!" You hung on every word. It was wonderful. You didn't always know what it meant, but you were just jazzed that God was speaking to you in that book.

It's a love letter to you. And as you've grown more in love with the Author Himself, whom you've come to know, the book has become more precious to you. God speaks to you encouragement, guidance, sometimes rebuke — but it's always done in love, isn't it?

If you've been neglecting your time in the Word, I want to point you to Psalm 119. It's an alphabetic, acrostic psalm. Each stanza begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so there are 22 stanzas with eight lines in each. That's 176 verses with a single theme: "I love the Bible." David loved the Word of God, the precepts of God, the judgments of God — he talks about it in so many different ways. He loved the Word of God, because he loved the God of the Word.

A consistent, daily exposure to the Bible — and a commitment to obey it — will do more for you than anything else in your Christian walk. It will teach everything that pertains to life and godliness, because those come through the knowledge of Him who called us. As we get in touch with the Author, it makes us strong and wise and equipped. His Word is powerful. It brings salvation, it gives direction, and it brings joy and victory to your life.

Read God's love letter to you. Grow more in love with the Word of God, and with the God of the Word.