The biggest difference in my life began when I opened the Bible for the first time. As I read the gospel of Matthew, I came face to face with a Savior I didn't know. And as I read, Jesus filled a gaping hole in my life--replacing emptiness with peace and giving me a joy I didn't think possible!
I became like a sponge, soaking up all I could of God's wonderful Word, carrying my Bible with me wherever I went. Every available moment I spent with Jesus. I just couldn't get enough of Him--His words, His miracles, His promises. I had to know Him and His wonderful will for my life!
I felt like the man in the parable who found treasure in a field. "And for joy over it he goes and sells all he has and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44). His family and friends must have thought he was crazy as they saw him selling off everything he owned. But he knew what he found. And the treasure was worth far more than anything and everything that he had.
I see this parable as holding the key to how I can experience an intimate walk with Jesus. To be one with Him just as Jesus was one with the Father. To live as He lived--with such faith and love and faithfulness to God. This parable holds the key. For Jesus is the priceless treasure that is worth seeking for. So my first step is to earnestly search for Him with all my heart as I read the Bible from cover to cover. For every page holds a revelation of my Savior and the hidden treasure He longs to put in my hands.
But I've discovered that merely reading the Bible won't help me uncover that treasure. I must open it with a hungry heart--with a deeper sense of my need for God and to follow Him with all my heart. Without that hunger, the words of Jesus will be merely words on a page that I never experience for myself. And when you hunger for God, you want that kind of knowledge, a knowledge that saves and changes you into the image of Jesus. To reflect His love and righteousness, His truth and mercy, His obedience and faithfulness.
A large part of soul hunger is to have faith in the Word I am searching--a faith that reaches beyond a mere belief that Jesus is God and the Bible is true. "Faith in Christ as the world's Redeemer calls for a heart that can discern and appreciate the heavenly treasure. This faith is inseparable from repentance and transformation of character. To have [this] faith means to find and accept the gospel treasure, with all the obligations which it imposes" (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 112).
This is the big difference why sometimes we open the Bible and get nothing out of it or other times why it radically changes our whole life. When I open the Bible with humility-laying aside my ideas and listening only to God, He can speak to me. When I give myself fully to the Lord in heart surrender, there will be no roadblocks between God and me. Instead, He'll find an open doorway where He can enter in with the gospel treasure and all the riches of His grace. That's why my attitude is so vital in seeing and treasuring the riches in Scripture.
And I think that's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). He can't perceive the love of Jesus, the joy found in obedience, or the peace that's found in walking in His will. "Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14, NRS). "He may conjecture and imagine, but without the eye of faith, he cannot see the treasure" (ibid). He might pick up some knowledge along the way. But it won't be saving knowledge unless he feels his emptiness and knows it can only be filled by knowing God.
So if I fight against the Spirit of God, wanting to do my own thing or hold onto my own ideas, I'm shutting my eyes to the light of God's Word. And I won't be able to see what delights Jesus has in store for me. My disobedience will close the door to "a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Scriptures" (ibid). True understanding can only come when I'm humbly seeking to know God and to know His way that I may obey it.
So in my journey with Jesus Christ, I am praying each day for an outpouring of His Holy Spirit so He can open my eyes and my heart to the treasures in His Word. "Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your Law!" (Psalm 119:18)
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