J. Alisdair Groves and Winston T. Smith, On How the Bible Can Change Us

“Make no mistake: every last word in the Bible bids to change you – to change how you think and how you feel about the world around you. This does not mean, however, that reading the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 will somehow magically dispel a panic attack just because it happens to be in the Bible. A lot more people would give their children names like Amminadab or Zerubbabel if it did! It does mean that reading your Bible regularly over the years will make you a different person, choosing to let Scripture’s songs, sermons, and stories enter your mind is like choosing to eat a balanced, healthy diet: every cell in your body will be affected by access to good nutrients, mostly in ways you’re never aware of. As a result, even reading the geneaology of Jesus helps stabilize your hope in the gospel as you learn to appreciate how God works through families, even families that include such unlikely outsiders as Rahab, Tamar, and Bathsheba, as well as people with major moral failings, like Abraham, Jacob, and David.” (Untangling Emotions, pgs. 126-127)