Chapter Eight - Breathing
by Dane C Ortlund
Breathing
Reading the Bible is inhaling, praying is exhaling.
Our Greatest Earthly Treasure
Growth is greatly dependent on how well you know this book.
Scripture is shaping and fueling and oxygenating.
Reconstructing
The Christian Life is nothing short of a deconstruction of what we are naturally as we enter this world and the reconstruction through the Bible.
Oxygen
We need the Bible not only because we are wrong in our minds but empty in our souls.
It is the steady in our shifting lives. Concrete words from God to guide us.
Learn it, even in it’s original languages.
A Book of Good News
“through the encouragement of the scriptures we have hope.” Romans 15:4
It is help not oppression.
Every passage is contributing to a single storyline that is Jesus.
The Defining Habit
To read the scripture is to be with Jesus and to be with Jesus is the path to becoming the person I am intended to be.
Make it a central part of your life.
Exhaling
Breath in his words and exhale through prayer.
We can enjoy and receive the word in prayer. It is our way to speak to God. Have a relationship with him. Speak to the Father.
Children Speaking to God
Jesus told us what to pray, but when we don’t know the Holy Spirit can speak for us.
Think of this as a child and their father. Imagine a ten year old never speaking to their Father throughout the day.
Speak to him as an actual person, not a theoretical person.
The Bible’s Prayer Book
The Psalms are prayers for us to use.
They can train our hearts in the gospel direction.
