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Here are a couple of quotes/thoughts which I resonate with. They are from Jim Cymbala's book, "Fresh Wind Fresh Fire." Good stuff.

Cymbala quotes William Law, a 18th century Englishman: "Read whatever chapter of Scripture you will, and be ever so delighted with it-yet it will leave you as poor, as empty and unchanged as it found you unless it has turned you wholly and solely to the Spirit of God, and brought you into full union with and dependence upon Him."

Often times I can read the Bible, but it can seem blah and dry and unapplicable. It is pretty easy to grasp intellectual concepts in the Bible. But what is important is connecting with the Spirit of Christ, who breathes life to the words on the page. Without a living connection to Him, we cannot truly understand/grasp the heart of the Scriptures, the heart of God, and we cannot truly live in the power that He offers. It's funny because the common conception is that faith is easy because it just takes a simple act of believing. People think that intellectually rationalizing concepts in the Bible is more difficult. I think it's the opposite. It's easy to see how many theological concepts "fit" into a "system" of theology. It's much more challenging to truly believe the incredible words on the pages of the Bible, to believe what God has done, to believe that His Spirit lives in us, to believe that we can experience the living God, perform miracles, receive true forgiveness, not be a slave to sin, be set apart. That's tough, but that's where life is found.

Going along with that thought, Cymbala points out in a relevant Scripture in John 5 where Jesus is talking to the religious leaders: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that BY THEM you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to HAVE LIFE." It's not by knowing Scriptures that we have life, but by coming to Jesus. Nor is it by reading books about God, like Cymbala's. Everything needs to point to a real, living experience with the true, living God.