"Word Before World" or "World Before Word" ... Which Life Are You Living?
Paying Attention Is Costly
Peter writes this regarding the Scriptures in 2 Peter 1:19, ESV, when he tells us that we “will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” Therefore, we must pay attention to it — heed it, love it, treasure it, eat it, absorb it, think it!
The Scriptures are meant to be enjoyed, not merely opened. God’s Word will take root in our hearts only by purposeful tending to it by meditating and paying attention to it. Turn off the television when you read, wake up early to read, shut out the world when you read the Word.
The great cause for neglecting to pay attention to the Word is not a lack of time, but a lack of heart. Reading requires work.
Meditating on the Word
The Puritan Thomas Brooks compares bees and flowers to how we must read our Bibles. Bees do not simply touch the flower; they extract and buzz upon it to extract. Likewise, if we want the sweetness and power of the Bible simply reading and leaving is not sufficient.
Thomas Brooks continues, “It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian.” Reading without meditating is like eating without chewing.
Psalm 1:1-2, ESV, says, “Blessed is the man… [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
What fools are we who forsake the delicacies of God’s Word for the crumbs of the world? The Word of our Creator is our only source of life and joy in the wilderness of the world. As Peter replied to our Lord, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68, ESV).
The Word’s Work
Could it be the lack of joy in your home is because of a lack of abiding in the Word? Is your home more consumed with griping, bickering, and laziness, rather than godliness? Is it possible that the only time you hear/read God’s Word is Sunday mornings?
The Spirit of Christ conforms us to the image of Christ by the word of Christ. May we tape note cards to our doors; write with dry erase markers on our mirrors. May we sing songs of the Word in our homes.
The Word of Christ brings life and life more abundantly! Christians find fuel for their faith and joy for their travels only because of the voice of their King as they wage war on the battlefront.
Seek to carry the Word in our pocket, read it in waiting room, listen to it in traffic, hear it preached, taught, and expounded on podcasts and sermon platforms. Teach your children/grandchildren, and be taught yourself!
Our homes must be controlled by the Word. Our work must be instructed by the Word. Our churches must be governed by the Word. We must be people of the Word.
As Charles Spurgeon once famously said, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to a person that isn’t.”
