it is the word and breath of God

Text: Psalm 119:33-56, 2 Timothy 3:14-17, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Isaiah 42:5-6

“God-breathed.”

I love that phrase – those words – because of how they make me feel. Because I have put my trust in God, “God-breathed” makes me feel safe, loved, and remarkably seen. It is deeply personal.

But “God-breathed” is so much more than a feeling, isn’t it? It is well beyond simply closing my eyes and almost tangibly feeling the sweet, near and warm breath of the Holy God surround me when I read my Bible. Oh, Sisters – it’s even better than that!

Sure, it’s nice to feel warm and intimate. But I imagine there isn’t one of us reading this today who hasn’t hit a point in their lives where tender just won’t cut it. We need something we can cling to. Something solid. Something that cannot be shaken. We need promises – both kept and made. We need to know that the Story we are staking our lives on isn’t simply the words of man, artfully crafted to give us a daily boost in the “feel goods.”

God-breathed (out of the mouth of God!), means TRUTH. It means it’s real. It means we can count on it, die for it – stake our whole lives on it!

If something is God-breathed, it is truly, unmistakably from Him. Timothy tells us, “All scripture is breathed out by God,” (2 Timothy 3:16) and Peter tells us that “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)

So, what does this mean for Scripture? What does this mean for us?

In short, it means it was on purpose. From Genesis to Revelation, it is complete. In real life, God chose men over a span of thousands of years and, through the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, His word was breathed into being. No mistakes were made. And, it is complete. (If you’re interested, we encourage you to dig deeper on this topic. This book, this video, this article and this article are four solid places to begin.)

It means the God who breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils (Genesis 2:7), breathed the only living and active document into being as well – a means to say all that He would ever need to say to the world He created. It took time. It is timeless.

And this is where it gets personal again. Because we know that the Bible is the totally-truthful breath of God – the only voice of God we will ever hear or ever need to hear until He returns – we know that to read it means to hear the voice of God spoken to us Every. Single. Day. And writing it on our hearts in memorization means to carry that with us everywhere we go.

John Piper, when speaking at a gathering about three years ago, said of His communion with God in the Bible, “God talks to me no other way. But don’t get me wrong – He talks to me very personally.”

He is ours for the seeking, sisters! The thought makes me blush with privilege. The voice of God recorded then – living and actively communicating with me now!

How can we bear to close its pages?