A Lamp And A Light

Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.

Psalm 119:105 TEV

We must become grounded in the Bible. As Christians, we have only one authority, one compass: the Word of God.

In a letter to a friend, Abraham Lincoln said, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can and the balance upon faith, and you will live and die a better man.”

Coleridge said he believed the Bible to be the Word of God because, as he put it, “It finds me.”

“If you want encouragement,” John Bunyan wrote, “entertain the promises.”

Martin Luther said, “In Scriptures, even the little daisy becomes a meadow.”

The Bible is our one sure guide in an unsure world.

Great leaders have made it their chief Book and their reliable guide. Herbert J. Taylor, formerly international president of Rotary, told me that he began each day by reading the Sermon on the Mount aloud. President Ronald Reagan revered the Bible so much that he proclaimed 1984 the “Year of the Bible.”

We should begin the day with the Book, and as it comes to a close let the Word speak its wisdom to our souls. Let it be the firm foundation upon which our hope is built. Let it be the Staff of Life upon which your spirit is nourished. Let it be the Sword of the Spirit, which cuts away the evil of our lives and fashions us in His image and likeness.

Our Father and our God, thank You for Your living Word. It touches my heart with wisdom. It leads me through this dark world and keeps my feet on the Way to You. I love Your Word, Lord. And I love Jesus, who demonstrated Your Word on earth. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).