God's Word Causes Growth

(The following is post 5 of 5 on Five Personal Benefits of God's Word)

Brand new babies can only do a couple things:  they sleep, they cry, they do things in their diapers... and they eat!  Of course they eat, because they are growing.  If a baby doesn’t eat, they will not grow.  And if they continue that pattern, they will quickly die.  And not only is eating an absolute requirement, they must eat the right kinds of foods.  If they aren’t eating nutritiously, then they won’t grow properly.    

Peter uses a ‘baby analogy’ to make a point about a Christian’s growth in 1 Peter 2:2 by saying, “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow in respect to salvation.”   He’s saying, “Babies crave milk.  That’s all they think about.  That’s all they want!  Just like that babies strong desire for food, so should our desire be for God’s Word.”   If we do not long for God’s Word, we will not grow spiritually.  We will shrivel up and die in our soul.  

Job knew of the importance of God’s Word in his life.  In fact, Job seems to speak a little stronger than what Peter says when he states, “I have treasured the words of [God’s] mouth, more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).  Instead of saying we need to crave it like we need to crave food, Job says we need to crave it MORE than we crave food.  The desire for food is a very strong desire.  We eat multiple times a day because we’re expending energy and we naturally get hungry.  Job and Peter are both saying that our desire for God’s Word should be as regular, as natural and as strong (or even stronger) than our desire for something we do multiple times every day, and that is eating food. 

How do we know when we’re growing? Here are few things I read recently that can help us know:

1).  We are becoming more like Christ (more compassionate, more loving, exercising patience, concerned for the lost, etc).

2).  We are growing in our understanding of who Christ is and what He has done to purchase our salvation.

3).  We appreciate our relationship with our Creator and Redeemer.

4).  We are cultivating that relationship with the Lord Jesus, spending much time in prayer and in His Word.

5).  We display of life of holiness.  We develop an acute hatred toward sin and an increasing love of righteousness. 

Author and preacher J.C. Ryle wrote this in his classic book, simply entitled ‘Holiness’: 

“When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this - that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked.  He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart.  He manifests more of it in his life.”

Response:

What kinds of obstacles exist in your life that would quench your appetite for the Bible? What will you do to remove them?  

Is your circle of friends encouraging in the Word?  What things do you talk about when you’re together?  Are you encouraging them in the Word?

Spiritual growth requires regular rigorous Bible reading/study.  It takes time and effort.  There are no shortcuts.  Do you have a regular routine for getting a steady dose of scripture?  If not, now is the time to develop this habit.  Reading just 15-20 minutes a day, or 4 chapters per day, will enable you to read through the whole Bible in just one year. 

Memory Verse:

Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow in respect to salvation.  - 1 Peter 2:2

God's Word Delivers Me

(The following is post 4 of 5 on Five Personal Benefits of God's Word)

What people desperately need most is deliverance.  The Bible speaks about us as needing to be rescued and moved to a position of safety. That is what deliverance means.  The Word of God is capable of delivering people!   

People who are not in a relationship with Jesus Christ need to be delivered from their sinful state.   Sin has separated people from God, and without  His intervention they would be hopelessly lost, destined for a life of destruction and an eternal, conscious punishment in a real place called hell.  What they need is to be rescued!   We know from reading the Bible that salvation is secured by the blood of Jesus Christ alone.  Without the shedding of Jesus's blood, there would be no forgiveness of sin.  The Word of God is the means by which people are made wise unto salvation.   Paul wrote about this to Timothy when he said:

“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:14-15).   

By this statement, we know that Timothy was taught the scriptures as a child... and it is those very scriptures that lead a person to their rescue.  The scriptures move people to positions of safety, spiritually speaking.   

Not only do unbelievers need to be delivered, but Christians need to be rescued as well.  Rescued from the barrage of attacks from the enemy; rescued from fear, and doubt, and anxieties; rescued from discouragement and disappointments.  Even Christians, in their forgiven state, do not live on mountain tops all the time.  Believers must sometimes walk through valleys in their lives, dealing with personal struggles and various trials and temptations.  Yes, we know that Christians have been delivered by God through Jesus Christ already, in that they have been saved from the punishment of their sin, and they have been cleansed of the resulting stain and guilt.  But the Christian life is hard.  David knew that.  David was a man after God's own heart, and yet he still cried out for deliverance.  He makes a plea for rescue in Psalm 119:170 when he cries out, 'Let my supplication come before you, deliver me according to Your Word'.  The means of rescue here for David was nothing less than the Word of God.   

God’s Word is a source of much encouragement.  As Acts 20:32 tells us, the word of God’s grace is ‘able to build you up’!  A steady diet of scripture builds in us the ability to resist temptation.  It builds in us the ability to stand up under trials. It builds in us confidence and courage in the face of doubt and fear.  We are commanded in the scriptures ‘to be anxious for nothing’ (Phil 4:8).  The scripture is strong to deliver, because it is the very Word proceeding from the mouth of God. 

God’s Word can have serious lasting effects on us.  But we must receive it humbly by faith, understand the sobering responsibility we have to conform to it’s demands, and then be delightfully willing to live in obedience.  

Response:

Do you feel closer to the Lord when your Bible disciplines are consistent?  How is your relationship with the Lord when you don’t spend much time in the Word?  

Do you believe that the Word of God has the power to deliver people from their sin?  If we believe that, what reasons do we have as to why we do not share scripture with one another more often?  

Write a brief prayer, asking God to use His Word to bring you to a position of safety and security by delivering you from the sins that cause you to be defeated. 

Memory Verse:

Let my supplication come before you, deliver me according to Your Word.  - Psalm 119:170

God's Word Rejoices My Heart

(The following is post 3 of 5 on Five Personal Benefits of God's Word)

According to Philippians 4:4, rejoicing is a command from the Lord! Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul exclaimed, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say rejoice!”  And if saying ‘rejoice’ twice in this passage wasn’t enough... in case we didn’t get it, Paul says it again in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “rejoice always”.   Rejoicing isn’t a suggestion here, but rather an imperative. 

But sometimes rejoicing is not the option we really want to choose.  However, God is telling us to do it, so it must be the BEST option regardless of our circumstances or how we feel.  Whether we are high on the mountaintop or down deep in the valley, the Lord has given us the BEST tool in His toolbox to help us rejoice:  His Word!!!  Psalm 19:8 gives us great encouragement when it says, “the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart”. Similarly, in Psalm 119:111, it is God’s testimonies “that are the joy of my heart!”

What is it about God’s Word that would cause our hearts to rejoice? That's a great question to ask!  When we are immersing ourselves into our Bible reading disciplines by studying, memorizing and meditating, then that means we are literally in God’s presence.  We are experiencing deep fellowship with our Creator as we let the scriptures sink deep down into our souls.  In God’s presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11)! 

The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 had a providential divine meeting with Philip that resulted in the eunuch’s salvation!  After he was baptized and Philip was snatched away, he went away rejoicing! What led to his rejoicing?  He had just had a life-changing encounter with God’s Word!  He was reading a passage from Isaiah in his chariot and the scripture changed his life.  

“Christian joy is not the temporal kind, which comes and goes with one’s circumstances; rather, it is predicated altogether on one’s relationship with the Lord, and is thus an abiding, deeply spiritual quality of life”. ~ Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. 

Every time we open the Bible, it should be a life-altering experience.  The Word of God has the ability to do amazing things in our lives.  God’s Word will accomplish every purpose for which He intended it (see Isaiah 55:10-11).  If we’re teachable, like the Ethiopian eunuch, then we can also go away rejoicing!  

Response:

What circumstances in your life steal your joy?  Is there a reason you would let something steal your joy, when joy is from the Lord?  

If joy is elusive in your life, do you think spending more time in God’s Word will help you with that?  What steps can you take in your pursuit of ‘rejoicing always’? 

Write a brief prayer, expressing to the Lord the joy of your salvation!

Memory Verse:

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.  - Psalm 19:8a

God's Word Keeps Me from Sin

(The following is post 2 of 5 on Five Personal Benefits of God's Word)

John Bunyan had the following sentence written in his Bible: ‘Either this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book’.   The Psalmist also wrote a similar thought in Psalm 119:11, when he said, ‘Thy word have I treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee’.  Saturating our minds with scripture is the key defeating sin in our lives.  The Word of God is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal as we engage in the daily battle against sin!  

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil in Matthew 4, He didn’t respond with some cleverly crafted spur-of-the-moment argument.  He replied to the devil by using scripture. Jesus got out the sword of the Spirit and began to wield it, cutting the enemy down to size.  What was the result?  The devil ‘left him’ (Matt. 4:11).  Jesus had a reservoir of scripture on the tip of His tongue, ready for the brutal assaults of temptation. 

Think about the times you are tempted to sin.  The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that every temptation has a way of escape.  He says, 

“No temptation has overtaken you but such is as common to man; and God is faithful,  who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it”.  

Paul says temptation is common!  But with each temptation, God has provided a way to escape it.  He’s saying that we don’t have to succumb!  

Interestingly, just a few verses before this passage, Paul describes the experiences of Israel’s past are examples for us to learn from.   Things written about in the Old Testament (God’s Word!), were written for our instruction (1 Cor. 10:11).   There it is!  We look into God’s Word and see consequences of sin in the lives of various people and we use that as a roadmap in avoiding the same sins that they committed.  We see certain signposts along the way when we read scripture, and they are giving us direction as we travel.  If we are willing to follow God’s roadmap, then certainly His Word will keep us from sin. 

Consider the following short verses:

• Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matt 6:33). 
• Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good (Rom. 12:9). 
• Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth (Eph. 4:20).
• Wives, be subject to your husbands... husbands love your wives (Eph. 5:22;25). 
• Children, be obedient to your parents (Col. 3:20). 
• Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19).
• Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord (James 4:10). 
• Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:18).

Simple obedience to these verses, and ones like them, will keep you from sin.  If you ‘treasure’ these kinds of passages in your heart, they will be effective in keeping you from sin. 

Response:

What are your Bible reading habits like?  Is reading and studying the Bible a mechanical exercise?  Are you reading ‘just to get it in’?  Or are you looking for passages that will heighten your sensitivity to sin?

What specific things can you do to apply verses that will cause you to sin less?

Write a brief prayer of confession to the Lord.

Memory Verse:

Thy Word have I treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.  - Psalm 119:11