Dear Ones,
Hope you wake with a hunger for God’s word for you today. Al will be meeting with men early this morning and I am going to be busy in the kitchen and trying a new recipe. We have Bible Study this afternoon and missed last week, since we were in KS.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
It is good to read our Bibles differently than we would read an ordinary book on fishing or home decorating, or a mystery story. Scripture is to be formed in us as we read and meditate on it. Recently I was reading Ezekiel 3 and Ezekiel was commanded to eat the scroll and it would be sweet like honey in his mouth; afterwards he was to go to speak to the people of Israel who did not live according to God’s ways, but they would refuse to listen to him. John was also told to eat the scroll when he was on the Island of Patmos, and it was sweet to his taste but bitter later in his stomach. He not only read the scroll but ate it and later wrote the book of Revelation.

In a similar way, we are not just to read the Word but digest it, let it read us and respond with obedience and prayer and ways of love. That means we don’t read it in a hurry but freely taste it, chew it, swallow it and digest it.   As we assimilate it, our hearts will be affected but not like propaganda that attempts to manipulate us.

Eugene Peterson writes how we are formed by the Spirit as the Scriptures are implanted in us. We don’t work ourselves up into an emotional state as we attempt to get in touch with God for that only puts self at the forefront. Rather we read the Word and let it shape our souls. Peterson says, ”What I want to call your attention to is that the Bible, all of it, is livable; it is the text for living our lives. It reveals a God-created, God-ordered God-blessed world in which we find ourselves at home and whole.” He goes on to tell us not only to read the Bible but eat his book by taking it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized with acts of love.

It’s fine to take notes on the sermon Sunday mornings, but what about letting that word get into us and become what we read and then expressed in our lives. It’s not all about just reading with warm feelings but let it do in us what God intends.

Challenge for today: Pray before reading your Bible and ask the Lord to help you digest what you read and let it bring wholeness to your soul.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy