Journey: A New Believer's Guide to Spiritual GrowthSample

Life Happens, Part 1

Life happens and it isn’t always pleasant. Sometimes, the challenge isn’t just some random life event, it’s Satan trying to discourage you. Satan can tempt us to doubt God’s goodness. Maybe he’s already trying to get you to doubt the decision you recently made to follow Christ, possibly tempting you to go back to an old way of life.

FAITH is your defense to protect yourself. Your faith can stop the enemy from piercing you with discouragement. Today and tomorrow, we’ll cover two more ways to build your faith because the stronger your faith, the better your defense! Think of these faith builders as Food and Fire for your spiritual journey.

Food for the Journey

The first is to read the Bible. The Bible might seem overwhelming to you if you’ve never read it before, but it’s simple really -- The Bible is God’s love letter to us. It’s a continual story of God working his plan to redeem his most prized possession in all creation -- you and me. 

The Bible has 66 books in it that are authored by 40 different people over a period of about 1500 years. They all speak consistently about God, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. Getting two people to speak consistently about something today is hard enough, much less 40 people! Yet they were all writing the same things about God--His character, His plans, His desires, and His expectations of us.

The Bible has two major parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is everything before Jesus came, and the New Testament is when Jesus comes to earth and thereafter. As you get to know it better, you’ll see that both the Old and New Testaments point to Jesus!  The Old Testament is Jesus foretold (prophesied), and the New Testament is Jesus proclaimed.  Where the Old Testament looks forward to Jesus, the New Testament looks upon the finished work of Jesus. The books of the Bible come in different forms -- some are stories, some poetry, some are prophecies and warnings, some are letters written to Christians from church leaders, and others are Jewish laws for the nation of Israel. 

The big overarching point of the Bible is to tell us about how God wants a relationship with us, and how He made that possible through His Son, Jesus. It’s God’s message of hope and love to you and me. 

It’s important to remember this about the Bible: it isn’t like any other book. God will speak to you through the Bible. That’s why Christians will read it over and over and over again, and why it’s referred to as

‘living” -- because there are different things that will pop out each time you read it. God can, through the Bible, speak something you need to hear for that very day.

Think of the Bible as food for your soul. You have probably eaten the same kind of food over and over again, yet every time it still gives you the nutrition you need. When you consume what God is speaking to you, it feeds your spirit!

CHALLENGE

This week do two things when it comes to reading the Bible:   

1. See if you can read the Bible every day. Make it a priority and plan time to devote to doing just that.      
2. Start with reading the Gospel of John. It’s the fourth book in the New Testament. It’s okay if you don’t understand everything, but it will tell you the story of Jesus when he was here on earth. Be sure to use an easy translation to understand, like the New International Version (NIV) or the New Living Translation (NLT).