THEN you will be prosperous and successful.” Because God will examine what kind of believers in Christ we have been, we should build our lives on God’s Word and build His Word into our lives – it alone tells us how to live for him and serve Him. Believers who ignore the Bible will certainly be ashamed at the judgment. Consistent and diligent study of God’s Word is vital, otherwise we will be lulled into neglecting God and our true purpose for living. Moreover, we must realise that through Bible study, God wants to show you what is true and equip you to live for Him.

But in our zeal for the truth of scripture, we must never forget its purpose – to equip us to do good to others. We should not study God’s Word simply to increase our own knowledge or to prepare us to win arguments. We should not study it primarily to learn to save our own souls (as most people are saved before they begin to study the Bible intensively). We should study scripture so that we will know how to do Christ’s work in the world. Our knowledge of God’s Word is not useful unless it leads us to good works (II Timo. 3:17). This includes preaching, teaching, witnessing, evangelism and soul-winning.

For successful training, you must deny yourself of many things in order to do your best, but keep your eyes on Christ — the goal — and don’t get side-tracked or slowed down (I Cor. 9:24-27). When we do this, we will win a reward in Christ’s Kingdom. Therefore, please let us all hearken to this scriptural admonition “to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14). God will give us all the grace and enabling power to succeed in our Christian journey on earth in Jesus’ name. Amen.