2 Timothy 2:15 English Standard Version (ESV) Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

There are several issue at hand here. First is doing your best. We are not all as skilled as some who are so gifted as to have total recall of all scriptures, chapter and verse with relevant meaning. To be fair none of us are as skilled as the Holy Spirit who is God in the third person. God knows us better than we know ourselves and He takes all of us into consideration as to honest effort. He will touch our conscience if He needs us to do better.

Secondly is the issue of coming into His presence. Our tendency is to avoid coming before our creator because we feel unworthy. Unconfessed sin is a problem. We can and often do feel ashamed even after confession of sin. Confession does not remove it from our memory.

I will skip over approved and ashamed for the moment to address the word of truth. If we consider the bible to be the word of truth then a face value reading of the bible can and often is accepted without understanding. It is true, don’t argue. Handling the truth is a different matter than just blind acceptance. We are meant to do something with the truth other than to just believe.

This is where the Holy Spirit is required to direct us with relevant understanding of the truth for each of us. There will be different paths for each of us according to our calling. We do not all go to seminary school. We do not all get called into foreign missionaries. Some of us cannot communicate well enough to teach. Some of us are not wise counselors. If we try to decide for ourselves what our calling should be without following the leading of the Holy Spirit, we may find ourselves adrift without help.

How well do we hear the Holy Spirit? That too differs among us.