Welcome to the Femina podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks so much for joining me today.

The topic today is just how the Bible helps us deal with our fears. One of the things we should

keep front and center in our minds and in our practice as God's

own special people is that the Bible is a living document. It's not like any other book on

earth. It's God's book, His Word, to us. And so when we come to the Word, we should compose

our hearts and our minds and read it with an attitude of faith and obedience.

When we read a novel for entertainment, we know the author is fallible.

And though we may gain great instruction and inspiration from a work, it is not the same category as God's word.

It can't be.

The Bible itself tells us that the Word of God is living and powerful.

Hebrews 412, for the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

No other book can claim to be living and powerful, the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

In other words, God's word reads us as we read it. It speaks to us, and if we read with faith, we hear. In our eagerness to be Bible

readers, we may gradually sink into a routine of just reading or listening so we can tick the box.

But we should shake off any lethargy of a mindless routine and read God's word with expectation, with interest, and hunger.

And I'm going to add here, don't just listen on audio. That is fine and wonderful in its place,

but don't let it be a substitute for reading. When we read, the words are in our eyes and in our mind.

When we listen, we can also be doing other things, thinking about other things, going in and out of the room, or answering a text.

Though when we read, yes, we can be distracted too, but listening to the word just shouldn't ever replace reading altogether.

Let listening supplement reading, but don't let it replace reading. Reading it, seeing the words on the printed page has

no replacement. Because God's word is living, it affects us, it nourishes us, it convicts us of sin,

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