BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR BIBLE:
Nine heart postures for approaching God’s
word
By Matt Smethurst
10 Publishing. 89 pages. £2.99
ISBN 978 1 912 373 710
‘Before I open my Bible? I struggle to find time to read my Bible at all – why would I use that precious time to read a different book before I even open the Bible?’
Not an unreasonable question, you might think. There are two answers. Firstly, this book is short. The 89 compact pages took me just 30 minutes to read. One short browsing session. Secondly, the time you spend reading this book will enrich and enhance the time you spend reading your Bible thereafter. It will help you to move from ‘reading your Bible’ to engaging with God.
Reading posture
Matt Smethurst is convinced that many Christians suffer from ‘poor posture.’ No, we’re not spending too much time hunched over our desks. Rather, the reason we are often intimidated, underwhelmed or just bored with the Bible is that we don’t give thought to the attitudes of our heart and mind when we approach it. Our posture towards God’s word is over-familiarity and complacency. Because of this, we very often miss out on the riches of hearing God speak to us.
Smethurst makes his case compellingly and engagingly in this little book, which is deep enough to be helpful, but never gets you bogged down. He goes through nine heart postures (prayerful, humble, desperate, expectant, etc) and with memorable illustration and humour demonstrates how and why we need to adopt them when we open the Bible.
Some of the postures will be helpful reminders of what you already know, while others will clip you round the ear with a firm ‘sit up straight’! There’s urgency in Smethurst’s tone – ‘Your soul will wither and die without your Bible’ – but also pastoral warmth and hopefulness that we really can grow in our relationship with God’s word.
Thawing our hearts
Far too often, I approach the Bible with a hard, distracted, frosty heart. So do you. This little book won’t thaw us out all in one go, but it will help us change our posture to God’s word so we start to ‘melt in its presence’. That’s why you should read it.
