All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16 (HCSB)
Over the past thirty-five days, we have carefully considered the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah is not just any book like the Lord of the Rings or Hamlet. The book of Jonah is divinely inspired, the very words of the book are ‘breathed out’ by God. Every part of the Bible, Paul tells us, is useful and profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness. Not only is this true of every book in the Bible but also every chapter, every passage, every section. Hopefully you have seen the truth of this in these daily reflections, which usually have been on only a single verse or a phrase from a single verse.
My inspiration for writing these devotions is the impact that similar books have had on me. I think especially of those by Charles Spurgeon, The Chequebook of the Bank of Faith and Morning and Evening, as well as that of Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest. I have not a shadow of a doubt that those are far better than anything I have written here and I could not recommend them highly enough. But the way that those men found such great truths—both comforting and convicting—in a single verse always humbled me. Indeed, Spurgeon would often preach for up to an hour on a single verse every service!
My eyes have been opened to the wondrous and unfathomable depths of the Bible, of God’s word. What a gift it is, and what a privilege and joy, pleasure and delight, it is to read the Bible. This has been confirmed to me over and over again. I hope and pray that these devotions, such as they are, will give you a hunger for more, for more of God’s word, for more of grace, for more of Jesus whose love is faithful and His mercy sure.
