Astonished

From Habits of  Grace (by David Mathis):

Bringing the Bible Home to Your Heart

John Piper: "A godly life is lived out of an astonished heart- a heart that is astonished at grace. We go to the Bible to be astonished, to be amazed at God and Christ and the Cross and grace and the gospel."

The kind of application most important to pursue in encountering God's Word is such astonishment. Press the Scriptures to your soul. Pray for the awakening of your affections. Bring the Bible home to your heart. It's really just another way of commending meditation. As we're freshly captivated by the grandeur of our God and his gospel, we become what we behold:

We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,

are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

2 Corinthians 3.18

Meditating on God's Word shapes our soul. Sometimes it yields immediate and specific points of application- embrace them when they come. But be careful not to let the drive for specific actions alter the focus of our devotions from astonishment and seeking to have your soul happy in the Lord. Coming to the Scriptures to see and feel makes for a drastically different approach than primarily coming to do.

The Bible is for us, but it is not mainly about us. We come most deeply because of whom we will see not for what we must do. "Become a kind of person," counsels Piper, " don't  amass a long list."