Read for your growth

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There is this not pleasant saying that says ” if you want to hide something from an African, just put it in a book.” Ouch! that hurts! But it’s the truth. We generally are not readers , and most people I know stop reading as soon as they finish school. Those in school currently ,give many excuses why they can’t read non examinable books. The main reason being, there’s no time. But on close monitoring, they will make time to hang out with friends, and watch movies. There is just “no” time for reading books.

What does the Bible say about reading ?

Acts 17: 11, “Now the Berean Jews were of noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” The Bereans were obviously readers. After receiving the message with great eagerness, they went further to examine it more, so as to ascertain whether what Paul was telling them was indeed true. And Paul highly commended them for that. He used the words ” noble character” to describe their actions.

Why should you read?

As Jaquelle Crowe observes, “books are teachers, sometimes tough , sometimes gentle, sometimes comforting, sometimes convicting, sometimes disturbing, sometimes life changing, sometimes practical, sometimes profound. They expand our minds and horizons, banishing the temptation to tunnel vision. They teach us more about the world and more about the Bible and more about people and more about joy and more about holiness and more about eternity and more about relationships and more about sin and more about grief. They make us more intelligent and empathetic. They make us sharper reasoners and more critical thinkers. Books make us better.”

Unfortunately, few people know this! But it really is never too late to start reading. I’m not speaking as someone who started to read from a young age, but as someone who discovered the power of books late last year, and have been trying to read consistently since then, not without flaws of course.

What should you read?

1st Corinthians 10: 23 should be our basis here, ” everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.” There’s a wide variety of genres out there, and one really needs to exercise discernment in regards to what to read or not. As God’s children, not everything is written for us. And therefore we need to be careful on whatever we read. Books are poison too depending on what you ingest. They have the ability to grow you, and the ability to destroy you , depending on what you read. As it is often said, “the eyes are the windows of the soul.” Mathew 6:22-23 says,” the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is the darkness! We therefore should watch whatever gets through our eyes.

There’s no other way we are going to grow if we don’t read. C.H Spurgeon quoted in “This changes everything” says,”give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read, he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains , proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read.”

This is a call to read for your growth!