The Bible does not innately fix our struggles. It is not magic. It is not immediate. And without the Spirit of God, it does not come alive (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Secular people read the Bible all the time without believing; some even know it better than Christians do, but it does not transform them. We need the Bible on our hardest days, but never just the Bible.
Conversely, those of us accustomed to rigorous, required Bible reading, might resist coming to the Bible out of fear of a swing back to legalism. We know the Word of God is used by the Spirit of God, but our fear of legalism keeps us from faithfulness.
Whether we avoid the Bible because we think it fixes nothing, because we don't want to be “religious”, or because we are just plain overwhelmed, we are missing the power of what it does. In my avoidance of truth that week taught me an important truth: When I have no words for what I'm feeling, when I'm drawing in the difficulty, Scripture speaks on my behalf. Or rather, the Spirit of God speaks through Scripture.
I finally drummed up the courage to sit down and make the time. I did something I never do: I flipped my Bible open to a random page. It fell to Psalm 112, a psalm my college chapel professor used as a parallel to Proverbs 31. “The Psalm 112 Man”, he called it. But man or woman, the truths applied directly to my situation:
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous…
They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
I sat back, astonished, but not ashamed. I could have absorbed shame for not showing up to the Word for so long, but instead God comforted me with these words. He knew. He knew my struggles, and Scripture spoke directly to them. How much more I would have benefited if I had come to the Word in the midst of the pain! And even though I didn't, God still spoke. Scripture speaks. The Spirit speaks. But often… we have to actually show up to experience such fullness.