“If we are alert enough to hear God’s voice we must not content ourselves with merely ‘believing’ it. How can any man believe a command? Commands are to be obeyed, and until we have obeyed them we have done exactly nothing at all about them. And to have heard them and not obeyed them is infinitely worse than never to have heard them at all, especially in the light of Christ’s soon return and the judgment to come.” A.W. Tozer from The Keys to the Deeper Life
My heart’s desire for this year is to read the Word with the purpose to obey. I don’t want to settle for head knowledge or even the inspiration of those beautiful moments which I love when the Holy Spirit opens up the Scripture and teaches my heart deep truths. I want to grab hold and challenge myself to really, truly believe what I’m taught there in my time in His Living and powerful Word (Hebrews 4:16) and to believe unto obedience. I want to walk it out daily in my real life.
I challenge you to do the same, to take Him at His Word and respond with quick, immediate obedience. Let’s rise up and do this in complete dependence upon, and faith in, Jesus’ divine enablement, allowing the daily confrontation of the Word to search us and reveal if we are truly believing and living according to His truth.
We all know that practical application is the purpose of our time in the scripture, but we so often, I fear, become complacent and content with simply knowing it or just checking it off the day’s to-do list. May we not ever allow Scripture to lose its profundity or its right to rule our lives. May we not, in our busyness, avoid the call for holiness, godliness, and righteousness, all of which are to be walked out in dependence upon His divine power.
Let’s CHOOSE (it’s a choice) to depend upon Him this day and each day afterwards and pray to “be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9, 10).
Obedience.
Here’s a link to a chronological Bible reading plan if you are still looking for one. It truly is amazing how checking off a box (or filling in a circle) helps with accountability. Try it!
I so appreciate you all! Thank you for being here. I’d love to hear how you are doing two weeks into this new year!
Traci
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
