Knowledge puffs up while love builds up

We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (1 Corinthians 8:1–3)

In the summer of 2002, after serving four and a half years as the youth pastor of NewLife, I left my job to begin studying for my Masters of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. After 17 years of public school education, first at South Windsor High School and then at UConn, I still remember vividly the wonder of walking into the seminary library, scanning the shelves, and seeing basically every Christian book ever written. There was even a whole shelf of Max Lucado books! As someone who loved Jesus and loved to learn, I was in my glory.

Seminary, however, came with a warning that I had heard repeated by many graduates and faculty:  it can kill your soul. Yes, all of this study might make you more knowledgeable when it comes to theology and the meaning of the Bible, but too often it comes at the expense of your relationship with God. Despite my incredulity that this would ever happen to me, the prophets proved to be correct. I graduated from GCTS, began serving as an Associate Pastor of a church in Bloomfield, and found that the vibrant relationship with the Lord that I had enjoyed pre-seminary had cooled off considerably.

The main culprit, I found, was that I struggled to read the Bible and pray in order to feed my soul and hear from the Lord. Instead, I was instinctively reading the Bible in order to think about how I might teach it to other people, and prayer was similarly focused on external matters instead of just being with my Abba. Instead of communing with God, I was treating His Word as a textbook to dissect and interpret for the good of others. And despite my efforts, I could not seem to recover my passion for the Lord.

One day, I was invited to hear a Christian author and speaker named Kenneth Boa share on the spiritual life. I picked up one of his books, a devotional called “The Heart of God.” As I began to use it on a daily basis, I found my heart thawing out and my connection with God growing. The unique thing about Boa’s devotional was that he was taking Bible verses and personalizing them; for example, instead of reading “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), Boa wrote it as a prayer: “I will have peace in you. Here on earth I will have many trials and sorrow. But I will take heart, because you have overcome the world.” This simple adjustment to the passages helped me read the Word once again not in order to figure out how to teach it to others, but in order to commune with my God.

While a devotional book can be helpful, it is not necessary in order for us to personalize God’s Word and pray it to the Lord. When we use God’s Word as a prayer guide, we can be sure that we are praying in accordance with His will (assuming we are faithful to context). The next time you read a passage of Scripture, why not go back and use it as a prayer guide, allowing it to guide you into adoration, thanksgiving, confession, or request. For example, after reading about Paul’s secret of contentment in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength,” ask Him to help you trust in His power, that you might live with peace and contentment no matter your circumstances. Let the Word of God lead you closer to the heart of your Savior.