[Monday's Devotional] - Growing by the Word

Growing by the Word

Our relationship with God our Father is central to our spiritual growth.  Knowledge of the Word of God (the Bible) is one way in which we can set our compass, to keep moving forward in the right direction:

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12 [NIV]

The Bible is a rich resource for following Christ and knowing something of the mind of God.  It is sharp like a sword – it cuts through to the core, illuminating and separating, aiding understanding and our right-thinking.  Soaking a little in the bible every day will help us to discern good and evil and guard us from wrong-thinking or allowing evil thoughts to grow and detract from what we know we were created to be.

As a reader of these devotionals, I hope you get at least 5 biblical doses of the word each week.  Do you also have other times to study the bible?  I went for years without reading the bible regularly – one of the best encouragements I had was the Walk Through The Bible events – if you have not come across this organisation click on the link above.  Small Groups are also a great place to learn from the bible together.  Are you a member of one? 

It could be that you would benefit from a bible reading plan – or gaining a better overview of what the bible is all about?

Knowledge of the bible is a key part of our defensive armour – and a good way to promote growth in your spiritual life.  Last year our church family was surveyed to take a snapshot of the status of aspects of our spiritual lives.  One of the outcomes was that nearly 20% of those surveyed said that they were “stalled” spiritually or “weren’t really going anywhere”.  More than half the people surveyed had stalled at some point within the past 2 years.  If you are in this position, why not decide this week to take your foot off the brakes and move forward in step with your Heavenly Father?

Action:  Is there someone you know who appears to be stalled spiritually?  How might you help? Is there something you can do to delve deeper into God’s Word today?

Lord, help us to have a passion to listen to you, to read your words, to learn from the experience of those who have been before – and to remember the words and actions of Jesus as a role-model for our lives, Amen

Dave MacLellan