2018 New Year’s Challenge:
Love the word...
Resolve to be in the word
Learn the word
Meditate on the word
Lean on the word
Search the word
Hear the word
Share the word
This New Year’s let’s resolve something worthwhile and powerful; something that can transform every part of our lives because God cares about every part of our lives; because He loves us. Let’s resolve to put reading God’s word at the top of the list, spending time listening to Him and talking to Him. Every real lasting relationship depends on sharing and communicating.
Being in the Bible changes us and if we don’t listen to what God says we can be deceived and led astray. Adam and Eve got into trouble when Satan tempted them by twisting God’s words, had they known God’s words better they may have made a different decision. Satan used scripture to tempt Jesus, but Jesus rebuffed Satan at every turn because He knew the Word because He was the Word.
Making a resolution to read the Bible can seem so boring, so hard, so (yawn). How many of us have ever tried before? Started in Genesis and by about February hit the book of Numbers and that was that!
But what if the error we make (that I have made) is to see this as a task to check off the to-do list instead of an opportunity to listen to the Maker of the universe and lover of my soul share His plans and hopes with me?
What if instead, we see this as a real relationship? I mean if someone who loved you, wrote you a book, would you buy it, bound in leather with your name engraved in gold on the front cover and then just stow it on a shelf or lug it to and from visiting them yet never to open it? No! We would read it, even if it was difficult, we would meditate on it.
I have that box of letters that Mike wrote to me when we were engaged and Mike has that little book I made him, we treasure them and keep them because they remind us of our love.
God is not just our King, He’s our friend, let’s honor Him and respond to His love by making a resolution to put Him first, where He belongs. Let’s listen to His voice and read His Words. There are many websites that offer Bible reading plans. Ones you can print out and tuck in your Bible, ones you can download and track your progress, ones that come as an app on your phone that will pop up the day’s reading right on your phone… There are so many options. We live in a nation overflowing with Bibles but we have so little idea of what that wonderful book says,
Let’s resolve this year to hear what God is saying to us in His word.
Let’s pray,
Lord, we ask you to be merciful and kind, to shake us to our foundations, and remind us of who You are and how You love us. Give us an insatiable desire, a hunger and a thirst for Your Word, use our time in the Bible to transform us, inside and out, to your Glory, AMEN!