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Today we continue some thoughts from reading Job 19:28, 'But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found within me?'
We have so far considered four signs that we too may have the 'root of the matter' within us:
5. Another sign may be that you want to read the Bible.
Some of us may have been brought up to read our Bibles and perhaps have got into the habit of reading a few verses or a chapter regularly.
Perhaps we follow a reading plan and aim to complete the whole Bible in the course of a year or two - the familiarity of the words can be comforting but just something to get done so we can get on with the day.
Have you found yourself looking at your Bible outside of your normal reading time - feeling attracted to it?... perhaps reading it as if to try and find a secret?
If you have never had a Bible perhaps you have actually gone out and bought one and although at times you do not understand what you are reading or where to read from you cannot give up.
Or maybe you have started reading the one you have had on the shelf or in the bottom of a drawer feeling a need to understand what is in it - and maybe you cannot believe it is the same book that you used to have read to you when a child - you seem to have new eyes and understanding. The words have a new meaning.
As you read you believe they are the words of God - you want to understand them - you want them to 'speak' to you and perhaps after you have closed your Bible some of what you have read stays with you and goes through your mind during the day.
There may well still be times when it is a discipline to read your Bible and you still don't understand it and perhaps you realise that you have read a chapter and closed the Bible without remembering a word of what you have read, but now this causes you sadness. You want to feed from the spiritual life and food found in these words which are becoming more precious to you.
You cannot neglect it.
6. Your sins trouble you
The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3 that the purpose of God's commandments are to show us that we are sinners.
Try as we might we cannot keep God's commandments perfectly.
Perhaps we haven't killed anyone, stolen anything or told noticeable lies, but every single one of us is guilty of sinning in our minds and hearts through our unkind, wrong thoughts and covetous wants.
Those who have 'the root of the matter' in them will at some point become more aware of their sins to a greater or lesser extent and realise that they need a Saviour to make them clean in God's eyes.
Perhaps you have tried really hard all your life - or in recent times - to be good - or maybe you have always felt very free to do anything you want.
But now that has changed.
You now realise that however much you zip your lips or try to 'be good' you cannot stop the thoughts and wants which you know are sinful.
Or perhaps you now feel your conscience pricking you when you indulge in certain activities. You sense that they are grieving to God, and maybe you have actually lost your interest for these things.
If you suppress these feelings you later cannot pick up your Bible and read or pray to God without feeling guilty and further from him.
Maybe you have prayed to God in the name of Jesus with contrition and brokenness and asked him to forgive you from these sins and stop you from wanting to sin, and you may even have felt a sense of peace and acceptance.
7. A changed view of God
The Lord works in each of his people uniquely but I believe there comes a time when each believer will realise that they have a new, different view of God.
For myself it was a gradual change. From viewing God as stern, severe and distant, I was brought to realise that the Bible actually called Abraham 'the Friend of God' (James 2:23).
That somebody could actually be described as God's friend was an entirely new concept to me!
Over time as I read my Bible, read spiritual books and prayed over my needs I came to see God as my loving heavenly Father who was in control of -and concerned with - all the circumstances of my life.
Have you (as Martyn Lloyd Jones* describes it) lost the 'craven fear' of God?
Do you now have a deep reverence for God?
Do you 'begin to have a feeling and sense that God is for me, that God is kind to me, that he is concerned about me, and that he truly loves me'?
To be completed in Part 4 God Willing.
*Walking with God Day by Day, November 28th, Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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