Back in the days before we all carried supercomputers in our pockets, if you wanted to find a phone number, you had to pull out a super-heavy book called a “Phone Book.” Every year, a new one would be delivered to your house. In one of those editions, there was an ad about the Phone Book itself that said:
“Born to be battered… the Phone Book. Underline it, circle things, write in the margins, turn down page corners — the more you use it, the more valuable it gets to be.”
I think the same could be said about the Bible. God’s Word isn’t meant to sit pristine on a shelf. The pages aren’t meant to remain neat and tidy. It is meant to be opened, underlined, written in, and most of all, taken in until it becomes part of us.
Jeremiah said it this way: “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16). God’s Word was food for his soul — sustaining him in the loneliness and challenges of being a prophet. He didn’t just study it, he consumed it, he tore it to pieces, and it filled him with joy.
In Revelation, the apostle John is told to take a scroll and eat it: “It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey” (Revelation 10:9). God’s Word is like that — sweet with the promises of grace, but sometimes bitter because it confronts sin and warns of judgment. Yet both flavors are necessary in the life of a disciple.
Just as food becomes part of us, God’s Word is meant to be absorbed until it shapes our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. It is sweet when it reminds us of His love. It is bitter when it calls us to repent. But it is always life-giving, always necessary, always valuable — like daily bread for our souls.
So pick up your Bible. Mark it up. Circle things, underline words, jot down prayers in the margins. The more you use it, the more valuable it becomes — not because the paper changes, but because you do. As Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Josh Rose
Family Pastor