Maybe you grew up in the church, even reading the Bible, but when did you truly start loving the Word of God?
Loving the Word of God leads us to love the person of God, and our ministries are transformed when we love the person of God.
In a recent interview, Tara-Leigh Cobble, CEO of D-group International and creator and host of “The Bible Recap Podcast,” said that her life and ministry changed when she truly fell in love with the word of God.
Cobble had grown up around the Word of God and engaging with the Word of God. She had pieced together a lot of what the Bible said, but it hadn’t taken root in her heart. She primarily saw the Bible as a book of instructions of what she needed to do to be obedient to God and a book of promises to cling to. But she was missing out on engaging with the Bible as the story of who God is.
Immediately after graduating from college, Cobble began working in full-time ministry, but she hadn’t really read and didn’t fully love the Bible.
“When I read through the Bible and saw the character of God jump off the page at me, when I began to understand the Word of God and find out who He is, I fell in love with Him,” Cobble said.
For Cobble, this new-found love for God was an entirely different experience than anything that had resulted from her efforts in obedience before.
“Seeing God and His character changed everything for me,” Cobble said. “And I had missed the point for so many years.”
Ultimately, Cobble’s love for the Bible resulted in a zeal for the person of God.
“It totally transformed my ministry. My ministry previously was about knowing what the Bible said,” Cobble said. “Now it was about this passionate love affair that I had with the God of the universe.”
Before she began loving the Word of God, Cobble didn’t realize what she was missing out on or how that was affecting her ministry. But it had a ripple effect on her life. As her love for the Bible grew, so did her love for God, and as her love for God grew, the people around her noticed. And eventually people wanted to know what had changed for Cobble—what was different about her life.
“That joy and love is contagious,” Cobble said. “It’s very curious to people in the outside world to watch someone love God.”
People often think of God as a task master, someone you can’t please, or someone who has horrible rules that don’t make sense. But it wasn’t a book of instructions that changed Cobble’s life. It was engaging with the God of the Bible that had made her different.
“When [unbelievers] watch someone love Him, that is captivating,” Cobble said. “That is winsome.”
For Cobble, this change started in her heart, but it didn’t stay there. It impacted the way that she did ministry and thought about ministry. Whether or not ministry is your full-time job, at some point you will likely be tempted to go through the motions—to do the work—without allowing your work to be fueled by the Word of God.
“When we read it, understand it, and love it, it transforms not only our hearts but our communities, our relationships, and our conversations,” Cobble said. “Everything changes by falling in love with God and his word.”
Consider this your invitation to fall in love with the Word of God again and let Him transform you and your ministry.
