“eating” God’s Word

Scripture Engagement: What Is It?

Spiritual Growth and the Scriptures
Ask many Christians of different ages and spiritual maturity levels what they believe is the best way to grow as a Christian, and the most common answer you’ll get is “pray and read the Bible.” And that’s a good answer. A maturing Christian continually grows in faith, hope, and love for God and others (1 Corinthians 13:13; Matthew 22:36-40). Prayer and Scripture reading are foundational to the spiritual growth of all believers.

 The whole idea of “eating” God’s Word has its foundation in a number of passages in the Bible, including Jeremiah 15:16, Ezekiel 3:1-3, and Revelation 10:9-11. It’s important to realize that, when the Apostle John “ate” God’s Word in Revelation 10:9-10, it tasted “sweet” in his mouth but turned “sour” in his stomach. God’s Word, while always true and good, is not always easy to absorb because it calls us to obey and trust. Meeting with God is not a “tame” process; God is training us for his Kingdom—and training involves work and change. 

Conclusion
So what is Scripture engagement? It is a way of hearing and reading the Bible with an awareness that it is in the Scriptures that we primarily meet God. It is marinating, mulling over, reflecting, dwelling on, and pondering Scripture, resulting in a “transformative engagement” with God. Besides “Scripture engagement,” phrases that have been used to convey the same idea include “holy attention” (see the article, Holy Attention), “spiritual reading,” “participatory reading,” “formative reading,” and “existential reading” (see R.C. Sproul video).

It might be helpful to realize that Scripture engagement is not exactly the same as studying the Bible; it is a complement to Bible study (see the article, Scripture Engagement Compared to Bible Study). Though both Scripture engagement and studying Scripture are needed to grow spiritually, this website will focus primarily on Scripture engagement.

Though listening and reading Scripture are better than not doing anything at all, Scripture engagement tries to correct common but inadequate approaches to the Bible (see the article, Not This Way). Too many people come to the Bible with an inadequate approach and then stop reading, thinking that something is wrong with the Bible or with themselves. With a little training and encouragement, the life-changing nature of the Scriptures can be experienced by anyone.

For a preview of the different methods of Scripture engagement listed on this website, go to the “Scripture Engagement Practices Overview” section. Once you find a specific method you want to learn more about, visit the more detailed section of the website where you can find a description, some resources, and practice tips.