Sometimes God uses something earthly to teach you something heavenly! I remember in the 1970s in a Café style meeting when a young woman insisted on reading the bible to me, passage after passage, eventually literally sitting on my feet whilst she did so. She prayed that the Holy Spirit would fill me with a love for the Word. Her insistence and prayer has been answered. But it amuses me that God had to use an attractive woman to get my attention so He could get the point through to me.
Now God may not be using that luxury this day with you but chances are he will find some way in your life of speaking to your heart.
Let me assure you that it is my lived experience that there is power in the Word of God, the kind of heart changing power that can only come from God himself.
For the sake of clarity I will explain that when we talk about the Word we mean "the Word of God" or the Bible. Christians believe that the bible is inspired by God - inspired in the sense that God has breathed spiritual power into it. It is a Spiritually true account of humankind's faith journey. But even more than that it tells of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Son of God. It gives us his teaching and many other messages, prayers and insights that can help us in our every day life. It is also God's instruction manual for a fulfilled and happy life.
The Word helps us to "Live by the Spirit" because it reveals to us day by day the truth about God. To know more about God is to love him more. To know him is to understand him.
To start dwelling in the Word you could experiment with praying with the scriptures open in front of you during your prayer time. What works for me is to read a passage out loud and then pausing praying for the Spirit to speak to my heart. I then re-read it looking for key phrases that speak to my heart. Quite often there are one sentence phrases in scripture that sum up the passage or open up it's meaning. Some psalms have several. SO find in your passage one of these passages and say it out loud a few times, dwelling on it's meaning for you. An example would be "where your treasure is, so too is your heart" which is from Matthew 6:19-24. Ask God what he wants to tell you in the sentence you have selected. Examine the different meanings it could have.
Debs and I tried this with Psalm 68 the other day and we each got different things out of it and shared with each other. It led to quite a special time of the Spirit speaking to us. I for example reflected on the phrase that says God is "a father for the fatherless" - which has been true in my life. I grew up in a household with an absent father. From time to time in my life God has provided for me men who have had a father role with me. Good men, it has to be said, who could speak in wisdom to my life. Debs had "Summon your power , God; show us your strength, our God, as you have done before." Sometimes we find things that encourage us. At other times things that challenge us. At other times steps to take in faith.
May Jesus be present to you today. May your life receive the blessing of Christ - the Holy One of God. May his gentle peace be with you, refreshing and renewing you. Amen
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