It is good when the Word of God troubles our souls. If the depth and majesty it reveals about the Lord of all creation does not produce the fear of Him in our hearts, then the blessings it pronounces do not belong to us either. Think through your most recent encounters with the Word. How did your heart respond to it?

We often approach the Word of God as if we are above it—as if we are the judge to determine what is significant and what is not. We do this unconsciously when we give Scripture a surface-level reading and think we have given it the consideration it deserves. We regularly sit as judges over the Word of God when we attend church and listen to sermons.

Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones once asked, “When did we last go to church and expect something to happen?” We usually expect church to be the same old routine it has always been because we have conformed to this world’s pattern. We listen to a sermon and then make our worldly declarations over it. We determine what is good and what is lacking. Did we like the pastor’s voice? Were his anecdotes funny? And on and on we go. When we do this, we fail to realize that if the pastor was faithful to the text he preached, we did not encounter a preacher; we had an encounter with the Word of God. Yet our hearts were unresponsive.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is living and active.

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