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Love God’s Word (2)

20 June 2018
‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’

In John’s third letter, he writes, ‘I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit’ (3 John v.2 NLT). To ensure we’re also ‘strong in spirit’, we need to be making God’s Word one of our first priorities each day. Jesus said, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed’ (John 8:31 NKJV). ‘Abiding’ makes us think of home, a place where we can feel safe and find joy, acceptance, encouragement, support, protection, purpose, identity, and rest. It’s a place we love to be. And if we want to abide in God’s Word, we should be accepting it as our highest authority, our guide and counsellor when we have decisions to make, and our standard for the way we live and act. It should be something we rely on and love to spend time with. We can run into problems when we base our choices on things that can be unreliable. Things like culture (‘Everyone else is doing it…’), tradition (‘We’ve always done it that way...’), logic (‘It’s the rational thing to do...’) or emotions (‘It just feels right...’). All these guides are flawed because they come from within us, and not necessarily from God. That doesn’t mean we can’t use them to help us make a decision, but we should make sure we’re testing what they’re telling us against what God’s Word says. Proverbs 30:5 reminds us that ‘every word of God is flawless (NIV). The Bible gives us a perfect standard to live by that’ll never lead us in the wrong direction. So let’s learn to love and trust what God’s telling us through the Bible.

What Now?

Which of the four things above do you tend to rely on to help you make decisions – culture, tradition, logic or emotions? Next time you feel yourself relying too much on them, use that feeling as a reminder to turn to the Bible for advice too.

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