This is a slightly longer version of the video message that was shared on Monday at the start of week 2 of 40 Days of Renewal.

I was 17. I’d had a road accident, and I was in hospital. I had a variety of injuries in varying degrees of severity, but the biggie was a broken leg, and the treatment for the broken leg was traction.

Without going into the gory details, traction involved a frame across the bed with ropes and pulleys and weights and stuff. And it’s fair to say, it wasn’t going well. That first month was a kind of fog of shock and pain and painkillers and more pain and more painkillers. In the middle of all this, the vicar came, he put a card on the frame. And the card just had these words on it “when you pass through the waters. I will be with you”. 

I didn’t know, but I kind of guessed (as he was a vicar!) that it came from the Bible, and it just got me thinking that if God was there then maybe I should be praying that God would give me strength to get through it rather than just take it all away. 

A few years passed, and I found myself in the balcony of Quorn Baptist Church in Leicester as part of a Christian group of students. We were there to do some work, helping with maintenance on the church. And we were all encouraged to have our quiet times before we started for the day. 

I’d been going through a reading plan, and I got to Isaiah, 43, which starts “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you O Jacob, he formed you O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I’ve called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters. I will be with you”. 

Wow! There it was, that was the verse! And then I realised that not only did God speak to us as a bunch of Christians who are together as the church; He does, but he also speaks to me. And here was a situation, and circumstances, that were unique to me. No one else had gone through that. So I took those verses, and the ones around it because they were quite good, and I said, those are mine. But you can have them too! They’re not just for me, of course, but they’re very special to me, particularly verse 4 “because you are precious in my eyes and honoured and I love you I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life”. And then again in verse 5, “fear not, for I am with you”. 

And that began for me a love affair with the Word of God. I wanted to get to know it. To learn how to hear God’s voice speaking to me, it was the start of a journey. A journey I’m still on – reading, studying, memorising and applying – putting it into practice, making it become real. 

2 Timothy 2:5 says this: “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”. 

That’s what I wanted. Rightly handling this word of truth. 

It seems to me that God has given us His Word. And we’ve got to work toward getting to know it. What does it say? What does it mean? How does it apply? 

And this is massively worthwhile investment of our time because it’s how God reveals Himself to us.

When we were first married, Julie I went to a church in Leicester. It was at the time that the Living Bible had just been published. We were quite impressed with this, so we took it to our church. A 12-year old girl there just dismissed it and said, “Well, yeah, all Bibles are living”. 

That’s profound especially from a 12-year old! But indeed, Hebrews 4:12 says exactly that, “for the Word of God is living and active and is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. 

God speaks to us. And he speaks to our hearts and it goes deep in us. And it’s vital and relevant to everyone. And it becomes precious. Psalm 119 is a long psalm but it’s all about the Word of God. 

Verse 72 says “this law of your mouth is better to me even thousands of golden silver pieces”, it is of huge value. And then verse 97, very simply “Oh how I love your law”. 

And that gives it the key dimension – the personal. It’s not just a collection of historical books, though it is that, but it’s also God speaking to us. And he uses his Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who wrote the scriptures is the same one who interprets it, to speak through it, into our lives.

Peter says this, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21)

Paul says something similar in in 1 Corinthians 2:12 “now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God”. 

This is something that God has done, so many times in my own life. Sometimes in big things – like the story, maybe for another time, of how Julie and I got married and how the Word was a key component of God bringing us together. 

And it’s right that we seek God’s will in the big things, but most of us don’t get married very often! What we really need is a daily walk with the God who says, “I will be with you”. 

Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. We’re encouraged to pray “give us our daily bread”. 

And the most important thing about the Bible is that it’s all about Jesus. “You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life and they bear witness to me” (John 5:39). Also on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:27)

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

And that’s what we need more than anything else. Yes, we need to know the big things, but God’s will for our lives, is this, “this is the will of God your sanctification” (1 Thess 4:3)  

And the Word is how that happens – look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17:17

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Now I’m still on that journey, it’s not always smooth, and every now & then requires a ‘kick-start’!

So it’s my prayer now that we would all be renewed in our love of the word, our knowledge of word and our desire for the word. 

I’d encourage everyone to be on that journey – it doesn’t matter how fast you’re going, but rather that you’re on the journey, devoting whatever time you have to God and His Word.

Let’s close with a prayer from Colossians 1:9-10 where Paul prays “that we may be filled the knowledge of his will it all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner, worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”.

And just may we truly know the truth of those words, “I will be with you”.