Hello Lovelies!
Today I am going to share something that has really been on my heart lately.
The importance of God's Word.
As some of you may know, 27 days ago a group of Christian women online decided to keep each other accountable to reading God's Word daily. How did they do this?
They picked a reading plan from the
YouVersion Bible app and created a hashtag so they could tweet, blog, instagram, etc about what truths God had been teaching them through His Word and have it easily visible and searchable.
That hashtag is #SheReadsTruth
They would have never imagined what happened next. Dozens of other Christian women and men joined in. Dozens of Christians were looking for effect accountability and community. The SheReadsTruth community was what they needed.
I personally found out about this and joined in on Day 6 (although I started back at Day 1 and caught up) of the Soul Detox reading plan. I have struggled for years trying to be more consistent in reading my Bible. I knew it was important, but only recently did I really understand WHY it was so important.
Do you ever have those moments where you feel like God is drilling something into your life? Like He is on repeat, telling you the same thing over and over in al sorts of ways and contexts?
I feel that way often.
Right now, He is telling me how important it is to spend time with Him IN HIS WORD.
How has He been telling me this?
First, through seeing the #SheReadsTruth community formed. I was reading God's word, but only once or twice a week and I was really struggling to figure out how to digest it…to take it in. I started following along with #SheReadsTruth and found that it only took about 10 minutes to read through the devotion and the text as well as spending a minute or so thinking about what I had read and tweeting a few thoughts. But was this really enough?
It was just becoming another reading routine…
It was not alive…
It was not changing my life…
Then I began to see the instagram photos of the other #SheReadsTruth women. There were journal pages filled to the brim with thoughts and notes and prayers. I KNOW that something happens and I am freed to go much deeper when I take the time to write, to digest my life through putting words on a page. I KNOW that we are supposed to meditate on God's Word, to digest it and allow it to sink into our HEARTS instead of only our minds.
But I justified…"I don't have anything to write about these passages. That works for journaling my life, not reading the bible. Aren't truly spiritual people just supposed to read it and pray?"
But as I finally let go and began to write, even the most basic of thoughts…even just copying a verse, thoughts began flowing through my pencil. Questions began to flow through my mind.
Not "yes and no" questions, but gut-wrenching, soul-searching questions. I wrote them down and had to make a choice…
Would I be brutally honest and write the answers to these questions or would I think answers in my head and then dismiss them…I began to write…
I don't like what I see on those pages.
I don't like the sin that is revealed.
I don't like the me that I see.
But it is truth.
It is what God is teaching me.
It is what He needs to work in and through my heart.
…Sunday a church, each of the graduating seniors in our youth group got up and shared a few minutes of advice. Of what they had learned.
ALMOST.EVERY.SINGLE.ONE said read your Bible. Sigh…that's what I said during MY senior advice 3 years ago.
One girl in particular put a slightly different twist on it…she talked about developing a "history" with God. Have a past with God that you can look back to and say, "See. He is faithful. He has done all this. I know I can trust Him because I have seen Him be faithful in the past."
It is SO true.
I have a "past" with God that I am so thankful for.
I can look back at numerous times when He has been faithful to me.
I can recall time after time that He has worked in my life for good.
But I don't want my past to stop now. I want to go deeper! I want to have a history with God unlike any other! I want to know Him INTIMATELY. I want to trust Him COMPLETELY.
Finally, last week on a run, I listened to this sermon on the POWER of the Word of God.
It is only 40 minutes long. I strongly encourage you to listen to it. Your faith with be built. Your desire to spend time in God's Word will be refreshed. And most importantly, your reasons for spending time in God's Word, will be radically changed.
In
this sermon, Britt Merrick goes through 20 Things the Word of God is Powerful For, backing each one with scripture itself.
1) The Word of God has the power to save us. {James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23}
2) The Word of God has the power to create faith in us.
- Saving faith {Romans 10:17}
- Sustaining faith {John 20:31}
3) The Word of God has the power to keep us from sin. {Psalm 119:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13}
4) The Word of God has the power to cleanse our lives. {Ephesians 5:1}
5) The Word of God has the power to make us holy, to sanctify us.
- We already have POSITIONAL holiness because of Jesus
- The Word of God will develop PRACTICAL holiness in our lives {John 17:17}
6) The Word of God has the power to build us up. {Acts 20:32}
7) The Word of God has the power to give us insight for living. {Psalm 19:7-8}
8) The Word of God has the power to make us fruitful, prosperous, and secure. {Psalm 1}
9) The Word of God has the power to prepare us to live life on mission. {2 Timothy 3:17-18}
10) The Word of God has the power to sustain us. {Matthew 4:4, Hebrew 1:3}
11) The Word of God has the power to keep us from stumbling. {Psalm 119:165}
12) The Word of God has the power to keep us safe from the evil one. {John 17:13-15}
13) The Word of God has the power to give us victory over the enemy. {Ephesians 6:17}
14) The Word of God has the power to make us honest with ourselves. {Hebrew 4:12, Psalm 119:29-NLT}
15) The Word of God has the power to make us mature. {1 Peter 2:2}
16) The Word of God has the power to make us wise. {Psalm 119:97-104}
17) The Word of God has the power to give us assurance of salvation. {1 John 5:13}
18) The Word of God has the power to give us peace. {Psalm 85:8}
19) The Word of God has the power to give us comfort and hope. {Romans 15:4}
20) The Word of God has the power to give us joy. {Psalm 119:92 , Psalm 19:8}
I hope these truths can bless you as they have blessed me!
Be blessed.
<3
{Feel free to use the photos above. If you display them on your blog, please link back to the original sermon - link above - and to my blog post. Thanks!}
