Many people consider the Bible to be a collection of nice stories with a good message which helps us to live a good life. This is true, but the Bible is so much more than good stories and a life philosophy. It is God’s own word and message to people.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In the Bible God has revealed to us that we have to get to know Him from His Word, and our attitude to the Bible shows our relationship with God. Therefore, not following the Bible means not following God – you cannot believe in God if you do not believe in the Bible.

John 14:15, 23
If you love me, you will obey what I command. … If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

If you call yourself a Christian, you cannot pick out some things in the Bible that you do not like because all of it is the Word of God. Not listening to what the Bible says about what we should do means not listening to God.

The Word of God becomes spiritual food when we act upon it
For our spiritual life the Bible is just as important as food is for our physical life. The message that God is giving us through the Bible is not just knowledge, but indispensable spiritual food we need for spiritual growth.

Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The fact that the Word of God is food for your spirit does not mean that by reading one chapter you satisfy your spirit. However, by reading one chapter you get to know God’s will and when you act upon it, it becomes food for your spiritual life.

John 4:34
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Jesus accused he Pharisees of believing that they had life in Scriptures themselves (John 5:39). Their problem was that they did not read the Scriptures with an open heart and that is why they did not see, either, that the Scriptures talked about Jesus. They read them so that the others should see how holy they were, but they practiced only what they read when the others looked at them.
The Bible becomes food for our spirit only when we read it with an open mind in order to live out what we learn. James says that if we do not put the Word of God into practice, we deceive ourselves – because the Word of God does not work before you practice it.

James 1:21-22
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Receiving the Word of God as truth
Receiving the Word of God with meekness means that you do not argue with what you read. If you do not receive what you read as truth and do not act upon it, you will deceive yourself and might just as well stop reading it.

The Word of God is not just a truth among many truths, but it is the truth itself. It is a scale with which you have to measure all other truths, and if the claim does not agree with the Word of God, it is not the Bible that is wrong.

The mistake that people often make is that they take a verse from the Bible and make a whole theology out of it, but David says that the sum of the Word of God is the truth.

Psalm 119:160
The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting. (New American Standard Bible)

The Bible does not include all knowledge, but it has all the knowledge we need and it is a guideline for all the other knowledge. If we build our life on the foundation the Bible gives us, we are building a solid foundation that will last for the whole life.

Matthew 7:24-27
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Before you test a claim, you cannot know if it true. The problem is that if you should test all the claims to see if they are good or not, your life would become a big chaos. That is why the Word of God is a foundation and all the claims that do not fit to it can be safely disposed of.

The Word of God is a light which makes our journey safe
It is not always easy to know which road you should take in life and God can also come to our help here. The Bible does not give direct answers to all questions of life, but it gives guidelines which lighten the way for us.

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

However, a light does not light longer than where you walk and you cannot get to know what is further ahead before you move forward. The Word of God gives light to your environment, but if you want to know what lies further ahead, you have to move forward by acting upon what you already see.

The Word of God is first of all a light that shows the way to salvation, but if you follow the light it gives, you will also be successful in this life.

Joshua 1:8
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

You can be successful in life when you have a foundation that does not change, and the Word of God is eternal. Building your life on a human philosophy means building it on changeable things – it is an uncertain foundation. However, when you build your life on the Word of God, you have a sure foundation which makes it easy for you to move forward.

Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed are those who do not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on his law day and night. They are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.