On the bookshelf in my office sits a small spiral-bound flip calendar given to me as a gift for Christmas last year. Its thin paper pages number 365, and on each page a Scripture passage is quoted—one verse for each day of the year.
What’s unique about this calendar isn’t its coloring or calligraphed font. It’s not the quality of the paper either. The calendar, in fact, is quite cheaply made. Yet it’s special to me because embedded within each Scripture is my own name. Each page has been adapted, customized, and tailor-made to me, forcing me to personalize God’s truth and promises for myself, not just for an ambiguous world, beyond my experience.
When you read the Bible, does the Word of God come alive to you? Are you able to see yourself in its pages, read yourself in its truth? Can you claim God’s promises for yourself on a daily basis?
If you struggle with this, as I have many times in my life, employing the following method might offer you some hope today. Speak aloud these Scriptures and insert your own unique name into the blanks (not just the pronoun ‘I’). Read them several times if you need to.
“For God so loved __________ , that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16).
“There is therefore now no condemnation for __________ who [is] in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
“If __________ is in Christ, [she] is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
“__________ will know the truth, and the truth will set [her] free” (John 8:32).
Scripture is powerful and effective, alive and active. The difference between the words ‘word’ and ‘world’ may be only one letter, but God’s Word and His ways are the only true thing that can offer us lasting and eternal hope.
