A Word from The Word

A Word from The Word

by Brenda Barno

February 2010

What do you do with the Word—how do you read it? Do you read it to collect information or out of routine “devotion time?” Do you read because you love God and want to know more of Him and how to live for Him? Do you read it at all except for the few minutes on Sunday when Pastor has us open our Bibles? Do you read it to be changed?

We need to remember that it is through the word that we are transformed and no longer conformed to this world. We are cleansed by the washing of the water of the word. The word is life to those who find it and health to our bodies. It is what is to guide and lead us. It is wisdom from above. It is living, active and sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates, even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Living Bible says it this way, “For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are.”

This should be our heart’s cry, for God to expose to us what we really are so that we can confess and repent. It is only as we allow this to happen in our lives that we truly become more like Jesus, our ultimate goal being conformed to His image.

The next time you sit down to read the word, ask God to have the word read you. That it would open you up and expose what you really are so that He can perform His merciful surgery and remove all that is unlike Him.

Search us and try us. Show us if there is any way in us that is unlike You. Remove it far from us and lead us in the way everlasting. Oh holy word of God read us.

[Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:26; Proverbs 4:22; Hebrews 4:12; Psalms 139:23-24]