Want to de-stress? Want more peace in your life? Want to be more wise? Want to know God better? Want to be more like Jesus daily? Quit reading! Actually, choose wisely what you read. Reading Facebook will poison your soul. Reading political articles will expose your spirit to dark thoughts and ideas. Whatever your eyes sees enter the brain on the way to your heart (Which is who you are). Guard aggressively what enters you through your eyes.

Now for a slight redirection of thought…

Many well meaning Christians read books ABOUT the Bible rather than the Scriptures themselves. Given a choice, it seems wise to have a massive intake from God rather than anything any man has written. Why? What we read has a massive influence on us. Everything that we see (Literally) changes us either for good or bad. Nothing is neutral. As it is recorded Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

From observation, it seems many Christians read more books ABOUT the Scripture than the Bible. Consider what is written in Acts 17:11, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining THE SCRIPTURES daily to see if these things were so.”

Spurgeon was a wonderful preacher, D. Martin Lloyd Jones was a brilliant expositor, Billy Graham is worth considering at times, Jonathan Edwards had tremendous insights about Scripture. However, every one of these men had two important things in common: 1) They read the Scripture themselves, 2) They were taught by the Holy Spirit. But too many skip those important points and read more often what men/women say ABOUT the Scripture! This is not good.

T.W. Hunt… after college… wanted to clear his mind of the world and what he’d been taught the previous four years. So for 365 days he did not to read anything except scripture. No magazines… no TV… no newspapers, just Scripture. According to him the effect was wonderful. God cleansed his heart from pseudo-wisdom of the world and implanted deep in his heart God’s Truth. THUS…

I propose we need to read Scripture. Given a choice between facebook and Scripture, choose Scripture. Don’t worry about reading a LOT of Scripture… seek to understand a verse… a paragraph… a book of the Bible. The Holy Spirit will reveal His truth!

So, read Scripture. Meditate on Scripture. Think about Scripture. And God will transform your soul.