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In the age of the internet, people are easily prone to giving outdated advice or antiquated references. For instance, if someone says they use Internet Explorer as their browser of choice, chances are that they aren't on TikTok. Maybe you hear someone describe their glory days on MySpace. You can bet they probably don't know the ins-and-outs of the latest trends of 2024.
These things aren't old by any other standard (Internet Explorer launched in 1995, MySpace in 2003), but the Internet and popular culture changes so fast that they became outdated extremely quickly.
Sometimes, we think about the Bible the same way. Many of us grew up hearing about how the Bible was the inspired word of God himself (2 Timothy 3:16), how it was timeless (John 1:1), and how, as Jesus was the embodied Word of God, it was the ultimate source of spiritual nourishment for us. (John 1) It contained the message of eternal hope. However, today, we still merely associate the Bible with felt boards, boomboxes, and childhood. It does not feel relevant to our lives today like was promised then.
If this describes you, 2024 is your year to rediscover the power of Scripture.
The first step towards that realization is understanding from where the power of the Bible flows. As you know, there is no power in the mere words of the book itself. The power comes from the God that speaks the words. The Bible is living and active (2 Timothy 3) because it comes from a perfect, all-powerful, eternal, all-knowing God who is Himself living and active. We reckon with that God ultimately within those same pages and in those same words you read a long time ago.
The second step of that rediscovery is redefining for yourself what is ultimately relevant to your life. With the blazing-fast internet and 24-hour news cycle we have today, we can never consume enough content to truly be up-to-date with all that's happening in the world every day. If we do reach any sort of relevance by the world's standards, it will envelop our whole lives and become our entire personality.
The Bible pushes us to consider the important over the urgent, the lasting over the temporary. This often is not as flashy as what we get otherwise but, as we continually expose ourselves to that which is deeper and better quality, we will learn the true, magnificent value of the godly, the spiritual, and the Scriptural. Similar to healthy food vs. fast food and classic literature vs. popular escapism, it is broadly known that, even know the former options are harder than the latter, they will leave you better-off as a person by a wide margin.
How much more is that true with Scripture! Not only is it the best book ever written, but it is living, active, and inspired by God himself who promises to love and care for you as you were originally designed.
In 2024, open yourself to the possibility that Scripture is indeed the living, inspired, powerful word of God.