Only One Gift

You have given me
many gifts
wondrous
merciful
rescuing
healing
transforming gifts.
They have given me
life
strength
hope
and a future.
But there is only
one gift
that I can hold in
my hands
one gift that I can see with
my eyes.
You have given me
your Word.
In it
your glory is revealed
your plan is unfolded
your sovereignty is demonstrated
your Son is magnified
his sacrifice is declared
my heart is revealed
my future is secured.
Your marvelous wisdom
splashes across every
page
your grace colors every
passage
your holiness lights every
book.
Guided and inspired by
your Spirit
human hands penned words
too majestic for human minds
to create
but designed for human hearts
to receive.
I hold your gift in my
hands
I press it into my
heart.

I could not live without this gift.

Through it
I have come
to know you
to know myself
to know your grace
to know new life
to know divine truths
to know rest of heart and mind.
Tomorrow once more
I will hold this gift in my
hands
and I will pray for the
grace
to read
to understand
to receive
to confess
to obey
and to celebrate
not just the gift, but
the Giver.

The Bible is the result of a loving Creator unpacking what is true for his creatures so that they will know how properly to make sense out of life. Without his loving revelation, we wouldn’t know how to know, we wouldn’t know for sure what we know, and we would have no way to know if what we think we know is true or not.

In the Bible, God, the meaning-giver, explains foundational truths to the meaning-makers he created. Every person who has ever lived has desperately needed the unfolded mysteries found in Scripture. The Bible is not so much a religious book, left to be relegated to the hallowed and separate corridors of institutional religion.

No, the Bible is a life book given for life purposes, so that the creatures to whom it is given would look for life in the only place where life can be found. The doctrines of the Bible are not so much ideology as they are living and divine tools of salvation, transformation, identity, and guidance.

Now carefully consider this: God never intended the Bible to be an end in and of itself, but rather, a means to an end. Scripture has a much greater purpose than to give you a comprehensive religious mind. The Old and New Testaments are meant to provide more than a history and a theological confession.

Their primary purpose is not information but transformation. The Word of God is not intended just to lay claim on your brain but also to capture your heart and transform the way you live. The Bible is meant to turn you inside out and your world upside down.

The Bible does not contain burdensome, life-constricting beliefs. No, the law of God imparts new life and new freedom. It will quiet your soul and give courage to your heart. It will make you wiser than you had the natural potential to be, and it will replace your complaining heart with one that worships with joy.

God provided you with this gift because he loves you. He is the giver of life, and he isn’t just after your mind; he’s after your heart. His truth is the ecosystem in which the garden of personal transformation grows.

God bless,

Paul David Tripp

Reflection Questions

1. List some of the gifts that God has blessed you with. How many can you name before you start to get tired? “You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.” (Psalm 40:5, ESV)

2. Is your list shorter than it should be? Did you struggle to recall any of these gifts or wondrous deeds? How can you meditate on them more frequently, and what would the result of this meditation be?

3. How has the Bible provided you with guidance recently? Where did you need to make sense of life, and how did the Bible supply divine revelation and practical application?

4. Consider a time when you chose to ignore the wisdom contained within the Word of God or applied another worldview for your decision-making? What was the result?

5. In what ways might you be at risk of using the Bible only for information? Do you get more excited about theological ideas, church history, or an academic religion than personal heart and life transformation? Look for evidence where this might be true.

6. Is there any part of your worldview that believes that the Bible contains burdensome, life-constricting beliefs? How do you know this to be a lie of the enemy? How does the law of God visibly impart new freedom in your life? Be specific.