If I sit down and talk with you about enjoying your relationship with God I am going to talk with you about reading the Bible.

Sometimes when I say things like that, people push back.

“You are telling me that a big part of how I am supposed to interact with God is through reading a bunch of words?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I am telling you.

Before you minimize the value of that however, take a moment and think about words. Words are pretty important to most of your relationships. After all, how’s your relationship with a tree? If relationships are mostly about seeing, it should be great. I mean, you can see a tree! But there are no words, it doesn’t speak, so there is no relationship. Relationships are built on words.

Think about people you don’t see. Can you have a relationship with them? You probably have family living somewhere else that you don't see, but you talk to. Would you say you don’t have a relationship with them because all you do is speak words to one another? Of course not.

Seeing someone or something is great. We like seeing things. We wish we could see God. Good news! One day believers will. But right now, He gave us the Bible. He gave us words. That’s good news as well. We should be grateful. This is not a small thing. After all, what kind of relationship could we have with God without His Word? It certainly wouldn’t be close. Imagine we had God’s presence now, but no words. Would that be an upgrade? Without His word we would be consumed, so no. A better illustration might be creation. Creation reveals the glory of God. There’s a sense in which it speaks, but of course, without words. If all we had was God revealing Himself through creation, we would be missing something vital.

But, maybe you are thinking the problem with the Bible is that it’s written words.

“If God was standing in front of me and opening His mouth I would think it’s important. But all I am doing is reading what He said.” Hold on. Do you really believe that? If I speak to my wife directly or I write something down for her, it’s me speaking to her in both cases, isn’t it? If my wife Marda is away and I receive a letter that she wrote, I say that letter is from Marda. If I have not seen her for a period of time, those written words become even more valuable because while she is not in my presence, those words are Marda’s and as I read them, it’s like she is talking to me.

The same is true when you read the Bible.

I think it was J.I. Packer who said, God speaks through what He has spoken. This means, when you read the Bible, God is talking to you.

Your response to God’s Word then reveals your response to God.

That is why when someone disobeys God’s Word in the Bible, they are disobeying God. In Galatians 1:8, Paul says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” They are turning to a different gospel, but what is that? It’s deserting Him who called you. It’s deserting God. God enters into a relationship with Israel in the Old Testament. How are they to live out that relationship? In submission to His Word. “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then you will be my treasured possession.” Exodus 19:5,6. What happens if they ignore God’s Word to them? They are breaking that relationship with God. The same thing happened in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s Word and broke their relationship with God. How does God make Himself known? When Moses asks God to show Him His glory, you know what God says to Moses? “And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name, ‘The Lord.’” (Exodus 33:19) God reveals Himself through His word. As we interact with His Word in faith, we are interacting with God. As one old preacher put it, “When I love the Word of God, I love God. When I believe the Word of God, I believe God. When I preach the Word of God, I preach God. When I receive the Word of God, I receive God. And spiritually when I know the Word of God, I know God.”

There’s more of course to enjoying a relationship with God than simply reading His Word, but right now, there’s not less. We know it’s going to get even better. But if we have been given faith, have the Spirit, and are able to study the Bible, we need to remember, that we do have it really, really good.