Trustworthy

Last Monday I woke up and checked my phone to see what the weather app had to say about the current conditions.  41 degrees!  I was excited!  That was certainly not what I had expected.  The previous night we had been out for the Christmas sing-a-long at one of the other local churches and Robin and I had discussed how in the winter a particular temperature always feels colder at night than that very same temperature does in the morning.

Forty-one degrees…a bit of springtime on the second day of winter.  I dressed for the low 40's and went outside…and I was cold!  I don’t know where my weather app gets its information from.  Usually it seems very accurate but on Monday the actual temperature was much colder than 41.  During the time I was out at looked at the ground in various places and there wasn't a single spot where there was water that hadn’t frozen.  Thirty-one seemed more likely than 41 and I changed my clothes accordingly when I got back inside.

My weather app is usually trustworthy, but it failed me on that particular day.  Something else that is trustworthy, and which never fails us, is God's Word in the Bible. 

In 1561 Guido de Bres wrote a statement of faith that said this about God's Word:

   

"We confess that this Word of God was not sent nor delivered “by human will,”
but that “men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God,”

as Peter says. (2 Peter 1:21)

Afterward our God—with special care for us and our salvation—

commanded his servants, the prophets and apostles,

to commit this revealed Word to writing.
God, with his own finger, wrote the two tables of the law.

Therefore we call such writings holy and divine Scriptures."

De Bres goes on to write a number of other things about the Bible but the statement above gets at the heart of what makes it a trustworthy book, which is that it was provided to us by God.  God, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the people who placed the words on paper, so that words written to us are God's words

As a new year begins I want to encourage you to read God's Word on a regular basis, at least a few verses every day.  God's love for His people is so great that He sent a Savior, Jesus, and the Bible is given that we might know of His love and our salvation without any doubts.  And unlike my weather app, God's Word never fails to give us the truth.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.