Most Christians are aware that God’s Word, the Bible, can help in pressure-filled times of life. When the Apostle Peter said to Jesus, “You alone have the words of life,” he was only saying in advance what many have come to know by experience. Believer after believer can quote a verse that accompanied them through a time of sickness. Others can recall a passage shared during a funeral service bringing comfort to a broken heart.
What you may find surprising, though, is that a large number of the general population also turns to the Bible to help them deal with pressure. A 2013 survey found that 25 percent of Americans had searched the Bible within the previous month to help them deal with pressure. When the time frame is expanded to a full year the number rises to 42 percent of Americans.
Searching for and finding truth
This is significant because people are searching for the truth and are turning to the source of it! When two-fifths of Americans have, on their own, looked to the Bible to help them in the last 12 months, the door is already open. We need to walk through it with a focus on God’s Word as the unchanging source of help.
When under pressure people want to know “Does the Bible speak to my situation? Is there something in it that can help get me through this?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!” God’s Word is living and powerful. It speaks today. It speaks every time it is referenced in a worship service, on a street corner, in a phone call, or in a group of believers studying it together.
The living Word
The writer of Hebrews called God’s Word “living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). There is no area of life it cannot touch, and no time we cannot plunge into its rich pages to find help.
Consider the circumstances during which many Psalms were written: hiding from an angry king, hiding from an angry army, after deliverance from battle, while being oppressed by enemies, and various other troubled times. Yes, the Psalms are songs that lead us to worship, but they also point to the writer’s source of help: God’s Word. In Psalm 119 alone, God’s Word is described as many things like: instruction, His ways, precepts, statutes, commands, righteous judgments, decrees, and wonders. How can it be any less for us?
People will find rest, comfort, guidance and assurance in the Bible.
