A Heart for God

I am reading A Heart for God by Sinclair Ferguson and came across the following quote on the necessity of Scripture reading. It encouraged me to pursue God more diligently and intentionally. I am passing it on to you with the prayer that it will do the same for you.

"Listening submissively to the voice of God is what brings us the knowledge of God and equips us to teach others and give them spiritual instruction. Where, then, is that living voice to be heard? In Scripture, and through patient study and growing understanding of the mind of God as he reveals it there. It is in Scripture that we learn how God views himself, ourselves, and the world, and what he wants us to know in order to serve him. Scripture is like a working museum of which the Spirit is the Curator, showing us around and explaining the wonders of the mind of the Maker. In this museum we are taken behind the scenes to learn from God himself. In growing to know God, therefore, there is no substitute for the discipline of Bible study and Scripture reading and meditation. We cannot bypass the handbook God has given to us and then expect that we can know him in our own way. The only god we can know in our own way is a god that we make in our own image" (p. 8).

I was struck by that last sentence. Without Scripture, we inevitably serve a god that we make in our own image. We fashion him rather than being fashioned by Him. I was also struck by the necessity of the Spirit's work in order for us to know God, to "see" Him in Scripture.