“I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” Psalm 119:16
I love God’s Word! Since the time I was a small child, the stories of the Bible have fascinated me. The thing I love most about God’s Word is it never gets old. Every time I open and read it there is something new and fresh that God places before me. Meditating upon the words written in the Bible gives me strength for each day despite the circumstances I face. God’s Word is real and alive. When I hold the Bible and open its pages there is a sense of awe in me that I am actually gazing upon the very breath of God. I am amazed by its wisdom.
It saddens me how many people claim to be followers of Jesus but have so little regard for His Word. It is my prayer that God would put such a passion for His Word in me that others would not only see the difference but want to know the reason for the difference. I want God to give me a passion like His of desiring to not see anyone lost. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
I read something today written by Shane Claiborne in his book, The Irresistible Revolution that I would like to share here. There was something that resonated deep within me and maybe it will resonate with you also. Here it is:
I developed a spiritual form of [bulimia] where I did my devotions, read all the new christian books and saw the Christian movies, and then vomited information up to friends, small groups, and pastors. But it never had the chance to digest. I had gorged myself on all the products of the Christian industrial complex but was spiritually starving to death. I was marked by an over-consumption but malnourished spiritually, suffocated by Christianity but thirsty for God.
Wow…it seemed to hit the nail on the head. There is a sense of searching and not finding here and one key seems to be “but it never had the chance to digest.” I want to know you more. To know someone more comes from spending time with and meditating on every word they say. It is like when you are first dating and you don’t want to miss a word the other person says. You read and reread everything they write. You want to know them more.
However, after a time we become comfortable and forget to savor everything about them. It happens to everyone. We do the same thing with God’s Word. In the beginning, it is great and we want to know as much as we can, but over time we get comfortable and forget what it was like to savor His Word; savor a relationship with him. We don’t have to live this way. We don’t have to be thirsty. Listen to these words from Isaiah taken from The Message Bible:
“Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money—everything’s free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.” Isaiah 55:1-3
God is the only one who can satisfy my thirst or anyone else’s thirst. It costs you nothing. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sin and rose again on the third day which proves he has power over death. When you put your faith in Jesus you become part of the family and your life will be forever changed. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
Dale Weerts 