(An early P.S.: If you’re just joining this current blog-thread, you might want to go back and start at July 23rd, just to keep this in context…)
Reflect on these words a second…
The words of your mouth are of greater value to me than thousands of pieces of gold or silver (Psalm 119: 72).
Now, take a look at these…
Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
(Psalm 119:111)
I ran across both of these passages, as I was studying for a message I was to share this last week to a group of young women. My goal was to leave these gals with a tool that might allow the Word to be powerful in their lives, to be life-changing, just as the Lord designed. However, after reading them, I was deeply convicted. If God placed two treasure chests in front of me and asked me to choose, what would I pick?
Behind door #1 is this:
Behind door #2 is this:
Is the word of God truly of greater value to me, as it was to the Psalmist? Have I found God-breathed Scripture to be the joy of my heart? If the Words of the Lord are as powerful as the writer of Hebrews (4:12) declares, or if they are as useful as Paul explained to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:16), then my choice would be a no-brainer.
Let me give you a couple of snapshots.
Snapshot #1: I’ve spoken several times at a women’s retreat for the same group of gals from the same church. Each time I’ve spoken, I’ve been asked to share an identical message over again, for at least one of the sessions. These gals want to hear the same uplifting, encouraging words over and over again. Words that assure them of God’s love. Words that remind them of their identity in Jesus. Words that cause them to reflect on their unique chosen-ness. I get it…these are important truths; we do need to be reminded of them. I’m not opposed to repeating a message…but I have wondered, and questioned…why are these truths not sticking? Why are they not making a difference? Why are they, apparently, not changing the lives of these women? Why must we cycle around and around about the same teachings?
Snapshot #2: This past February, Bay and I spoke in Cuba. We went to a different community this year, where I spoke to a new group of women. However, the first night in-country, we spoke at a church where we’ve been a couple of different times. A gal approached me, who’d been in one of my conferences both the year before, and another time several years ago. She came with a recognizable notebook in hand – a notebook we’d provided. With tears leaking from her eyes, she thanked me for the teachings from three years prior. Teachings she was sharing, and had even used just that day with a co-worker who was struggling with her marriage. Teachings from the Word that had changed her life first, and that she was certain would change the lives of other women she was in connection with daily. Her notebook pages were thin and faded, but they were being USED and God’s truths were bearing fruit!
Mulling these two scenarios over, I found myself, first, convicted. I live in a culture rich with biblical information. Access to the Word, and to messages regarding the Word of God, is plentiful. I attend retreats. I go to conferences. I read a dozen, or more, books centered around the Scriptures yearly. I hear sermons on YouTube and listen to Podcasts. How much are they changing me? How much do I remember? How much of what I hear and study have I found applicable, useful, corrective, strengthening, and am now teaching? Then, I began thinking on these words that God-breathed:
For though, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the Word…, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation…
(Hebrews 5:12-6:1, emphasis mine)
The amount of information available does not just automatically grow us up. God doesn’t have I-V poles on church pews. We don’t just instantaneously assimilate truth. We have to chew, ruminate, digest the meat He offers us. We have to mull it over. We have to apply it. We have to allow it to do that which God purposed (Isaiah 55:11). We have to “do the work” of the Word….courageously. We have to “man-up, church!”
Here are the questions I am asking myself? Spiritually, am I still settling for a bottle of milk and sucking my thumb, or have I begun to digest solid food? Food that is life changing! Food that works in me to help me mature. Food that develops God’s potential within me for His glory.
And, you? Are you going on to maturity? Are you still taking a bottle of milk or are you celebrating and cheering your advancement to solids? Is the word making a difference in you, or do you find yourself stuck, needing the same teachings, over and over again? Are there simple truths you want to “milk” over and over again, and fail to truly live out? Has the truth entered your world in the midst of your life issues and strengthened your soul? If so, are you sharing it with others?
