The Living Word

I was reading Hebrews this morning and saw this verse “For the word of God is living 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. I’ve always loved this image of the Bible, as God’s living word working through us when we read it. There are a lot of people my age, and older or younger, who look at the Bible as this old, dusty book that doesn’t mean much, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth! When we read the Bible God kind of speaks to us through the words, like what I said earlier about a passage jumping out at me. It also works in us, we change at that moment and grow closer to God, and if we apply those words we become “imitators of Christ”. But another thing happens and this has happened to me a lot, a lot of the times if I’m in a bad spirit, let’s say I had a bad day, or things just aren’t going right, God’s word “penetrates” me, it digs down deep and stirs me up, and it’ll be like “Oh…I really shouldn’t have acted that way to so-and-so” (or something like that). While the truth can hurt, it also helps us and works in us to transform us ultimately making us better. The thing I love so much about the Bible is that it is not just a history book, or some account, or a list of miracles, it’s that when you let it, it speaks to you, it works in you, and you change. It’s like me going to the batting cage, I get a tune up, I get better, stronger. I don’t know what everyone does for devotions, but what I recommend is spending a few minutes every morning and just sit down and read one chapter (or more, or less) and let it speak, let it work on you. When you really stop and think that the Creator of the entire universe stopped to transfer His thoughts to us, it’s really, really cool.