Do You Understand What You Are Reading?

In Acts 8, we encounter Philip as he is lead by the Holy Spirit to minister to an Ethiopian who is traveling.

"So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’" – Acts 8:28 NKJV

As a teacher and doer of the Word of God, this passage really hit home with me this morning. As I look at how I teach, I wonder if I ever take time to see if what I’m teaching is making any sense to who I teach. Or am I understanding what I am reading? The Bible is very complex, and no one has a total comprehension of it. We all are still at different levels of learning, and are constantly learning together. For me, I need to sit back and ask myself two very important questions:

1. When I read scripture, do I understand what I am reading?
2. When I teach scripture, do the people I teach understand what I am teaching?

For Christians, we know the Bible teaches that it is the Holy Spirit which gives us the ability to understand God’s Word. Our heart must be right before we can fully grasp what He wants us to get from scripture. We also must pay very close attention that we do not run through our reading, or block out someones teaching just to get to what we want to hear. God’s Word must be understood as a whole in order to make it practical for application. How can we practice what we don’t understand. This question that Philip asks is something we should all ask ourselves, and what he does after he asks the question is even better. He opens God’s Word, and expounds on it

"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him." Acts 8:35 NKJV

What a wonderful example of how we all should understand scripture! Today, examine how you study and how you teach. Are you relying on the Spirit, or yourself? Do you use other tools besides the Bible? You should. There is a wealth of resources that we can use to help us understand what we are reading. Get a concordance, a commentary and a study bible. Use them all together when you study. You will be amazed at how God’s Word will jump off the page!

Tags: Acts, Christianity, Teaching