01 Disciplines of Quiet Time: Read to Behold Glory
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Today I want to talk about reading the Bible. Surprise. An obvious essential to quiet time. In fact I would assume that for most of you listening, when you think of quiet time you most likely think of Bible reading. Now obviously that’s not the only aspect of quiet time, as we will come to know in later weeks, but it is where I think it's best to start this series.
When it comes to reading your Bible, I believe the majority of you listening today fall into one of these three categories…
You read and have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
You’re like me in any science class ever, because I was always present and listened to every word in class, yet it all went straight over my head. And maybe that’s you, present and desiring to learn, but struggling and confused, just like me in science classes. For you, it is hard to understand what is going on in the Bible and it is hard to relate to.
Now some of you fall in the second category, which is:
2. You read the Bible like you read any other textbook.
This is you if you read your Bible consistently, maybe even everyday, but you never feel like it is speaking to you. Though the Word of God says itself that it is living and active it does not feel that way to you. If anything, it feels just like any ordinary historical text, and because of that, your Bible reading feels more like homework than a holy interaction.
Lastly, some of you fall into what I call the….
3. Read and forget category.
You read your Bible faithfully every morning or every night, or even both, but if someone asked you what you read later in the day or in the week you couldn’t answer them. You read, but you don’t remember. And maybe you even think that's normal and good.
But I’m here to tell you today that there's so much more to your Bible reading.
There’s more to all of this. Reading the Bible is more than just reading a historical text and it is more than a routine thing we do and then forget about. Reading our Bible is not homework; it is a holy interaction. The Bible is also something we can understand and relate to, so long as we know how to approach reading it. And this is what I want to focus on today. Wherever you may be in your Bible reading, I want to encourage you today to read with a purpose.
However, before I share what that purpose is I want to first clarify the reason why we have quiet time, because…before we can even begin to approach our Bible reading and reading with a purpose, we need to know and understand why we have quiet time to begin with. And the answer as to why we have quiet time is simple.
We have quiet time to be and to become.
To be with Christ and to become more like Him. To be in His presence, to be intentional about seeking Him in relationship and investing in that, and to become more like His character, to become more gracious, more loving, more merciful, more humble, virtues of that nature. To be and to become.
But there’s another ‘B’ in this quiet time equation, a third ‘B’, and that ‘B’ is what goes in between the being with Christ and the becoming like Christ, and it also happens to be the purpose of our Bible reading. So what is that in between? What is that purpose?
Well, that in between, that purpose, is to behold God’s glory.
To be, to behold, to become. That is why we have quiet time.
They are the three foundational aspects (or components) of quiet time. The three B’s if you will.
To be with God, first and foremost, to behold Him and His Word, and to become more like Him.
Now that might leave you wondering….’why should beholding glory be the purpose of my Bible reading..?’ Maybe you’re like my Mom and you think that word behold is ancient and confusing. Maybe you don’t even know what it means, or maybe you think it is insignificant. But beholding God’s glory is so so significant to our quiet times. It’s so important. And although yes, I admit the word behold may seem ancient, but it is actually relevant and very necessary for our quiet times. And today I want to explain to you why.
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Imagine being in heaven for a second. You are face to face with your Maker for the first time and He looks at you and says ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’. At that moment you finally get to see and behold Jesus for who He fully is, to fully see His glory, and worship Him. That moment and that place is going to be an incredible experience of God’s glory, an experience that we look forward to and one that we will only know fully in the future.
But here’s the thing. Yes, it is true that we will only experience God’s glory fully in the future, but that doesn’t mean we will experience God’s glory only in the future.
Does that make sense?
We can experience some of that glory now!!!
Paul writes on this in 2 Corinthians 3:18, saying,
‘But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord’ (italics mine).
Isn’t that verse incredible! Look at that phrase ‘beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord’
In Paul’s time, mirrors were made of polished metal, which is a material that gave off a clouded, somewhat distorted image. That meant when you’d look in the mirror back then, you wouldn’t have a full, clear image of yourself. You certainly had a guess of what you looked like but you didn’t have a perfect image. It wasn’t like any mirror you’d see today. So what Paul is saying here in this verse is that we CAN see the glory of the Lord, and we can see it NOW, but we just can’t see it perfectly; we can’t see it fully. And we WON'T see it perfectly, we won’t see it fully, until we are with Jesus in heaven.
Now if we continue in that verse, Paul answers the question ‘why behold glory?’...because He says that while we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being TRANSFORMED into His same image from glory to glory.
That word ‘transformed’ Paul uses there means to be changed in composition or structure, which means change from the inside out.
So as we behold the glory of Christ, God will change us from the inside out. He will change the composition of our heart, from one that is deceitful above all things and of the flesh, to one that is like His. In other words, that means as we behold Christ and His glory, we become more like Him.
Seeing the quiet time pattern here?
As we behold, we become.
The late great Tim Keller noted in a sermon of his something that I think might help you understand this point. He said that in modern advertising they no longer want to sell us a product by telling us about it but rather by showing us it. And Keller says that is because we tend to want what we see.
And why is that so? Well that's because we are attracted to beauty. We are attracted to the beauty of a woman or a man, the beauty of a sport, the beauty of a dress, the beauty of a car, the beauty of jewelry…we are attracted to beauty. We tend to want what we see. And we tend to want more of what we are attracted to. What we find beautiful.
And that is exactly what Paul is encouraging us to do in 2 Corinthians 3:18…He is telling us to behold the beauty and glory of Christ. To see it. He is saying that on earth, though only through an imperfect and distorted view, we can gaze upon and behold the ultimate beauty of Jesus Christ. And when we do that, we will continually want more and more of Him, because we do tend to want what we see, and we ARE attracted to beauty, and NOTHING is more beautiful and desirable and glorious than the character and person of Jesus Christ.
That is why when I’m with Christ I want more of Him. That is why I want to become more like Him. It is because His character is just THAT beautiful. His glory just THAT great. He is worth our constant attention and our worship.
So it is when we do this, Paul writes, when we choose to be and behold the glory of Christ, that we will be transformed; that we will become more like Him.
To be, to behold, to become.
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Now an example of someone in Scripture who chose to behold glory is David.
In Psalm 63, verses 1 and 2, David says:
‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory’ (italics mine).
Did you get that? David is saying because he sought after God, and because his soul and flesh thirsted for more of Him, he chose to BEHOLD His POWER and GLORY.
I love this because I think David’s words here elaborate exactly on the heart of quiet time. It’s a heart that desires and seeks God earnestly, as David does, and because of that, it’s a heart that chooses to behold God’s power and glory, which David does. And what David shows us here is that the action of beholding God’s glory is the result or fruit of the desire for and pursuit of God. In other words, because we want to be with God, we choose to behold God.
Now let’s talk about that word, ‘behold’. I’ve said it a lot, and I’m sure many of you may be wondering what exactly that means…like what does it mean to behold the glory of God or to behold His beauty? Well the word ‘behold’ refers to seeing and it means more than a glance…it is a gaze. It’s a careful and continuous look. Some versions of 2 Corinthians 3:18 say ‘contemplate’ in place of ‘behold’. We can be transformed by the glory and beauty of the Lord, but ONLY when we gaze at it…when we contemplate and carefully study it.
Let me ask you this: Would you spend a few minutes looking at your notes in order to prepare for a difficult exam? Would you just glance over them and then take the test? Of course not! Your grade is too important and your exam too difficult to do that.
You would spend hours looking over material in order to prepare. You would gaze…you would contemplate…you would carefully study.That is what it means to behold. In relation to our quiet time, it means you continuously spend significant time gazing, contemplating, and carefully studying God’s Word, His glory, and His character..
Because life, like the exam, is far too difficult and the culture far too ungodly for us to believe that we will impact the world for Christ by simply spending a few minutes a day in quiet time reading God’s Word. The truth is the world will impact you! So we have to read with the purpose of beholding glory, so that we may be transformed by the Word and not by the world.
Here’s the thing though: it may only take reading one Word in the Bible for you to behold the glory of God. It may take multiple chapters. I think often many of us wonder how much Scripture we should read as part of our quiet time and my encouragement is to read until you behold glory.
Let His Word transform you. I remember two summers ago I got stuck on the word ‘majestic’ in Psalm 8 and I studied it for hours, then a few weeks later I got stuck on the phrase ‘jars of clay’ in 2 Corinthians 4 and all of sudden I studied pottery for two hours. At those moments those words were what had me behold the glory of God…what had me contemplate and gaze. They stood out. Now the word ‘majestic’ or the phrase ‘jars of clay’ may not stand out to you as it did to me, but something will. And I encourage you to read until something does.
And that is what is so beautiful about God’s Word. It is personal. What makes me behold glory may be completely different from what makes you behold glory. And I love that!
The Word of God truly is ‘living and active ‘(Hebrews 4:12). It is a talking book that WALKS and TALKS with you every…single…day. And that is what makes it so beautiful. If you’re sad, it is sad with you. If you’re happy, it is happy with you. It weeps when we weep and rejoices when we rejoice.
The Word of God speaks to us in ALL states or conditions. When I was sad, there was the book of Job that mourned with me. When I was happy, there were the last five Psalms of joy there to rejoice with me, or David in 2 Samuel 6 dancing before the Lord with all His might.
The Bible is personal. And you cannot outgrow it.
It will always be personal and always be growing with you as you grow.
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And, quick side note, don’t be afraid to use a devotional or a commentary. There are people who have studied one particular verse their whole lives, and if you are confused with what you are reading there is nothing wrong with looking at a commentary for help. I personally read commentaries all the time. Commentaries and devotionals are your friend, and they will help you behold the glory of God in your Bible reading. So don’t be afraid to use them.
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Now to bring it back, the Bible is personal, and beholding God’s glory in quiet time helps make it personal. And when quiet time becomes personal, it becomes intimate. It’s like a kiss, because a kiss is love manifested. You are connected to it. You enjoy it. You want more of it. Now that may throw some of you off, me saying quiet time is like a kiss, but I hope you can understand the example I’m seeking to make. Every kiss you have is a unique and special expression of love, and every kiss you have is something that you remember. And our quiet time every day should be no different. It should be a unique and special connection or expression of love between us and the LORD, and it should always be something we remember.
So with that in mind I want to ask you:
Would you characterize your quiet time as something special? Something intimate? Something you cannot forget?
Would you describe it as love made manifest in you?
Would you say you are experiencing Christ’s love for you?
I get disheartened by those of you who say your Bible reading is like reading a historical textbook. That’s boring. Nobody wants to do that. No wonder it is hard for you to remain consistent in the Word. If this is you, your Bible reading has not become personal, it has not become special, it is not intimate. Your quiet time is more like homework or a chore than it is a kiss. And that is not what you want!!!!
And for those of you who read and then forget what you read later in the day or week, would you forget a kiss? Of course not! Because a kiss is something special. It’s love manifested. And that, ultimately, is what we want as Chrisitans in quiet time. We want God’s love for us to be made manifest in our lives. We want to be in His presence. We want to experience His goodness. We want more of Him.
Now I am by no means telling you to chase feelings. To chase goosebumps.
They are great, and it's awesome when you have them, but they can be misleading.
Remember we ask the Lord for daily bread, not daily sugar.
We’re not after spiritual highs in our quiet times, we're after sustained spiritual growth and nourishment through time spent in relationship with Christ.
So that is my encouragement to you today. Exercise the discipline of reading to behold God’s glory, choosing to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, allowing Him to transform you into His same image from glory to glory.
I’ll see you all next week.
I love you.
God bless.
