Letting Scripture Read You
The how of the role of scripture in spiritual formation is not so much a body of information, a technique, a method, a model, as it is a mode of being in relationship with God that we bring to the scripture. I suggest that your top priority be to listen for God. Seek to allow your attention and focus to be on listening for what God is saying to you as you read.
Listen for God to speak to you in and through, around and within, over and behind and out front of everything that you read. Keep asking yourself, “What is God seeking to say to me in all of this?
By adopting this posture toward the text you will begin the process of reversing the learning mode that establishes you as the controlling power who seeks to master a body of information. Instead, you will begin to allow the text to become an instrument of God’s grace in your life. You will begin to open yourself to the possibility of God’s setting the agenda for your life through the text.
Not only will this exercise begin to transform your approach to reading (and prepare you for the role of scripture in spiritual formation), it will also begin to transform your whole mode of being in relationship with God in a way that will enhance genuine spiritual formation.
This is something we know about every human being. He or she is made for God; there will always be an incompleteness until a person arríves at God.
—M. Robert Mulholland Jr.,
Shaped by the Word
In treatment, where we often come seeking answers, relief, or direction, it’s easy to approach Scripture like a manual—something to master or apply. But as M. Robert Mulholland reminds us, Scripture isn’t just a tool for learning—it’s a place of encounter. When we open the Bible not to control it but to listen for God, something shifts. The goal is no longer to gather information but to allow God to speak, shape, and heal. As you read, ask, “What is God saying to me here?” This posture of surrender opens the door to real spiritual formation. It moves us from self-direction to God-direction, from striving to receiving. Scripture becomes not a task to complete, but a sacred space where God sets the agenda—and slowly, gently, makes us whole. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics