God's Word for Me

S. "My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh." Proverbs 4: 20-22, ESV

O. It is my prayer that I will always be attentive to God's voice around me. My desire is to know him completely in my life and that requires that I listen and pay attention to what he is saying to me. A major part of that comes through the reading of God's Word and the truth found within His word. A few years ago, I didn't read the Bible much for my own personal growth and spiritual growth and maturity. I would study the Bible, I would read for sermons or Bible studies...I would spend a good amount of time in the Word, but it was only to give to other people. I was not taking it in for myself. I was challenged by another Pastor to change this seemingly good, but destructive pattern in my life. I was encouraged to read the Bible for me...to allow the truth of God's word to flow over me and mold me into the man that God has intended to be. I began a journey that is still going strong today...a pattern to reading for my own spiritual encounter with God has emerged in my daily routine that I really enjoy and desire like never before.
What I have found is exactly what the write of Proverbs stated...As I keep the Word of God...the truth of God within my heart, it gives me life and a fresh sense of God's holy, healing presence can be found in this place. God's Word is alive and active...there is a great mystery in this faith journey in God's Word...it is living in me and leading me in God's ways each an every day.

A. The application is simple for me today...to encounter God's Word on a personal level each day and to allow God's Word to mold me and shape me into God's desire for my life.

P. Lord, I thank you for your Word and for the live-changing, live-giving power of your Word. I open my life to receive your truth! Amen.