Month: January 2024

Store Up God’s Word in Your Heart

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App3 Comments

When I was in college and dating my future husband, we got to know each other through letters. I know that hardly anyone writes letters these days, but Harry and I would write to each other at least twice a week. I looked forward to getting the letters from him, the news that told me what he was doing and how things were going for him on his navy ship. We also talked to each other several times a week, in an era when there were no cell phones and every long distance call had a cost attached to it. Why were we so dedicated to this communication? Because we wanted to know each other better.

That is why I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading God’s Word and spending time talking to Him in prayer. God will always be a stranger to you if you don’t take the step to get to know Him. His Word is His love letter to us. Prayer is our long distance call to Him. Getting to know more about God and His character, His purpose for you and your life, the reason His sent Jesus…all are found between the pages of the Holy Bible. I hope that this is the year you become better acquainted with God. It doesn’t matter how many times I have read the Bible all the way through. Each time I read it again, I learn something new because His Spirit gives me new insight into God and His great love for me as well as into actions that I need to take to be the person He wants me to be. So, if you make resolutions, resolve to read the Bible daily. After all, it’s hard to love someone that you aren’t spending time getting to know.

Loving God’s Word

When we want to learn a new skill, we take care to learn everything we can about that subject.

Artists try different supplies and techniques to enhance their art. Musicians practice their music measure by measure, note by note, in order to memorize and perfect the song they are learning. Architects and engineers memorize and practice advanced math in order to design and build safe structures.

We give our time and minds to things so that we can use them well.

King David wanted to know God. He knew in order to know God, he would need to know God’s Word, because he knew that Scripture would keep him from sinning against God. He even wrote:

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.”
Psalm 119:15 ESV

This is a valuable lesson for us to learn as well: if we want to know God, to know Jesus, then we need to know God’s Word.

Just as we give our minds to the study of history or math, or we practice an instrument in order to play it well, we must also give our minds and time to knowing God’s Word. We should meditate on Scripture and fix our eyes on what Jesus has taught us. When we do this, we store up His wonderful Word in our hearts and it keeps us from sinning against Him.

We can know exactly what God wants and desires for us by reading Scripture.

His Word gives us boundaries, guidance, and direction. His Word shows His purposes and character. His Word reveals to us who He is, and we get to respond with joy and obedience. So today, what will you give your time to? In what ways will you store up God’s Word in your heart?

Read and Do

On By vickleaIn YouVersion App1 Comment

Many of us read the Bible daily, but how many of us take the time to ask God to show us what He wants us to do after we read it? The Bible is an active and living Word that can change us from the inside out if we let it. The first step is to read, but don’t forget to ask God what the next step is…what do you need to do with what you have learned from your reading? There is so much meat in God’s Word, but sometimes I get so busy that I suck it down like it’s milk and move on. I want to take the time to chew slowly, savor what I have read and really let it nourish my spirit. We all need to spend time with God reading His Word, but when we leave our quiet place of reading, do we let His Word change us to be more like Him? Reading is fine…but doing is where the change takes place.

The Living Word of God

One of the biggest misconceptions about the Bible is that it’s just another book.

In fact, many Christians treat Scripture as if it’s just a collection of ancient letters and books that inform us about God and religious matters.

While the Bible is certainly a collection of ancient documents, it is also much more than that. It is the very word of God. The Bible is inspired by God, which means He spoke through humans to create these letters and books.

More than that though, God’s Word is living and active. The Holy Spirit uses the Bible to speak to us even today. This is what makes Scripture distinct from any other book.

James tells us in James 1:22-24 that the power of Scripture doesn’t just come by hearing it, but by living it out.

Scripture has the power to radically change the way we live, but we must take the effort to first read it, and then do what it says.

James says that anyone who reads Scripture and doesn’t follow God’s way is only deceiving themselves. We think we are following God simply by reading His Word, but God desires that we live out the truths of Scripture in our own life.

This is what it means to follow God’s way rather than our own.

Take a moment to consider a few ways you can begin to live out the truths in Scripture. Spend some time in prayer asking God to reveal to you an area of your life to transform by His Word. And then, resolve to not just hear God’s Word, but to do what He says as you follow after Him.

The Beginning

On By vickleaIn YouVersion App2 Comments

I hope that you will join me this year in reading your Bible daily. There are all sorts of different reading plans on the YouVersion App which is what I use. This year, I am reading from Eden to Eternity and another one called The Bible Project: One Story that Leads to Jesus. Whatever plan you choose, I hope that you get closer to God, because the Creator who made you in the beginning wants to have a relationship with you.

Happy New Year and Happy Bible Reading!

God as Your Creator

Have you ever paused to reflect on God as your Creator?
God is unlike any other that is, was, or will be. He alone is able to fully sustain that which He creates. And He alone is able to create—miraculously orchestrating His purposes—merely by speaking it into existence.
But there’s more…

If you dig even deeper into the pages of Scripture, you learn about power by which God creates:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:1-3

For in him, all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:16

The writer of Hebrews assures us that, “by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3 NIV).
This “Word” is Jesus Christ, and through Him, God brought everything into existence. The ultimate redemption of all God’s promises will come through that same Word—Jesus Christ.

Reflect on that truth for a moment: The same power that spoke the universe into existence is the same power that will bring about the redemption of all things promised.

Today, take some time to reflect on God’s role as Creator, and allow it to fill you with great hope. Because He’s not just any creator; He’s your Creator, and He holds the very universe—and your life—in His hands.