Text – Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”
The place of the word of God in Christian living and growth cannot be overemphasized. The word of God is so important that everything else in the Christian faith must take their validity from scriptures.
In Joshua 1:8, God spoke to Joshua saying, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
When the devil came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, one of the things Jesus said to him was this, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”… Consequently, what food is to the body, so is the Word to your spirit.
If you will not do without natural food for a whole day because you believe your body needs nourishment, it will be very unfair to your spiritual development to go days without study of the Bible, and leave your Spirit famished and feeble.
Among many other things that the Word of God does, it nourishes the spirit of man and helps him build up spiritual strength. Moreover, each of the times Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He had one standard response – “It is written…”
There are basically seven (7) kinds of interaction that believers should have with the Word of God:
1. Read the Word
2. Study the Word
3. Know (Memorize) the Word
4. Believe the Word
5. Obey the Word
6. Meditate on the Word
7. Preach the Word
You see, the more you interact with the word of God on these seven levels, the stronger your spirit is fortified by the Word.
As Paul sated in Ephesians 6, the word is the sword of the spirit. It is the only offensive/attacking tool in the whole armor of God. Just as when a warrior goes to battle without a sword, or with a weak one, you will be ineffective in the day of battle if you are not thoroughly equipped with the Word!
Job said in Job 23:12, “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food”
Until you get to this point, where the Word of God is more important and treasured far more than your necessary food, you have not fellowshipped enough with the Word of God.
PRAYERS
1. Lord, give me a heart the treasures your Word above every other thing in this life.
2. Lord, I ask that you circumcise my heart. Let my heart always tremble at your word, yielding to it in prompt and total obedience.
3. Lord, please grant me the grace to know, read, love, believe, obey, study and preach your undiluted Word all the more.
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