Before I go into today’s episode, I must start out by saying Happy Independence Day Celebrations, to everyone listening in from Nigeria, the land of my birth. I pray that as we step into this highly anticipated New Year, we will indeed start a journey that will turn the fortunes of our country around for good.

Moving on to today’s episode, I have often heard people say that as Christians, it’s ok to interpret a bible verse, the way it suits or favours us, irrespective of the actual context of that verse in scripture. I’ll give an example. Once, I heard someone lead prayers, asking congregants to regulate their earth and their world and quoting from the book of Job, chapter 38:33.

Studying the scripture later on, I found in actual fact, that Job 38:33 says the exact opposite of the prayer point that was raised that day. In a series of powerful rhetorical questions, God interrogates Job in Job 38, on issues that only the Divine can answer.

While we undoubtedly have power as believers, Job chapter 38 had the purpose of showing Job’s inability as a human being, to contend with Gods’ sovereignty, dominion and omnipotence. Therefore, using that verse as a promise for our dominion as believers, was a misrepresentation of that scripture, and quite the opposite of what the verse was saying.

As Christians, we are to approach the bible with the intention of understanding what God is saying to us, rather than reading our own opinion into the text, to make it mean what we want.

Remember that we are called, not just to read the bible, but to study it and correctly or rightly divide it (2 Tim 2:15).

May God give us the grace to be content to stop where scripture stops, and to respect the completeness and infallibility of His word, Amen.