Scripture Written for You, Not Someone Else

Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Acts 8:34, “And the eunuch said to Philip, ‘About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?'”

Background

If you check online to see if a store or restaurant is still open, and it’s after hours and it says they’re closed, you know that that applies to you. You will not be able to go there and get what you want just because you decided to. If you’re driving and in a hurry, and you notice the speed limit sign, you probably decide that that applies a little less to you than to others who are not on a time crunch to get somewhere. Or if you arrive at the hotel and the desk clerk tells you that they have no rooms, you rejoice in the fact that you have a reservation and that their no vacancy condition applies only to those unfortunate travelers who didn’t plan ahead. Or maybe you are in a setting where everyone has been told to turn off their cell phones, but you decided to leave yours on because you need to be able to be contacted if needed. We all go through the day making decisions about what applies to us and what does not. Perhaps part of the freedom we allow ourselves comes from the absence of our name attached to the prohibition. So I wonder if we would be more inclined to obey and follow Scripture if it was personally addressed to each of us individually. Would you be more compelled to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, if your name was written in front of those commands? Would you let all bitterness, wrath, anger and evil speaking be put away from you if the Holy Spirit had included your name in the text? What about being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you?

Application

The answer is maybe, for a little while. But the reality is that not until the Holy Spirit gets full control of you, and you desire to be a holy child of God more than you desire that stuff and those trips and that fortune, will you be the man or woman God intends as directed in His Word. Everything written there has your name on it, just as it does mine. We don’t need a special invitation or clarification as to what is for us and what is for them. Jesus was talking about Himself when He said that we must take up our cross and follow someone. And He was talking about you and me when He said that is the only way to life.

Charge

As we seek Him today, see yourself in the pages of Scripture, receiving grace, encouragement, forgiveness, and instruction from the Jesus of Scripture.

Editor Comment: This devotional challenges believers to stop reading Scripture as though it were addressed to someone else and to receive it as God's personal word to them.