At his blog, Chap Bettis makes a helpful distinction between proactive and reactive Bible intake. Proactive intake is our planned, and perhaps scheduled, time in God’s word, both in private and at church. But reactive intake is the unplanned moments when some issue or need holds our attention and requires answers from God’s word.
He writes:
By reactive Bible intake, I mean letting the circumstances of life drive us back to the Scriptures. It means opening up our Bible reactively when we are in pain or in doubt or have confusion about life.
The psalmist experienced this when he wrote. “It was good for me to be afflicted that I might learn your decrees,” (Psalm 119:71). In other words, pain, questions, and confusion drove him to open up the Scriptures. And he was glad for it.
If we really believe the Scriptures are sufficient then trials will drive us back to look for things we have not seen or understood deeply. The pain rips open the soil of our heart to allow the word to drop down deeper. Now our heart is tender, ready to take in the word.
I find such reactive intake to be the one I’m most likely to neglect. I often feel too busy for it, and I end up wasting the pain. How about you?
