What a wonderful reminder to keep our sights set on that which is good! Let me explain! To live as a follower of Jesus, he has made the desire of my heart to follow him. Most of the time, my own selfish desires try and invade that space and there is usually some sort of battle going on there!
The Bible it self is the word of God, and is the source of life, wisdom and fulfilment. Each time we read it we are to:
Proverbs 4:20-21 (NIV)
20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
listen closely to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
We need to fill our hearts and minds with the word, the love and the knowledge of the Lord, so that we can continue to live for Him, to imitate His ways and live lives that glorify Him and are a testament to those around us so that they may to be saved.
Feeding daily on the Word of the Lord really is a necessity for any Christian, and that doesn’t simply mean reading words then closing a book, it means understanding what you have read, dwelling on what
you have read, storing it in your heart.
Proverbs 4:23-27, goes on to talk about keeping yourself away from things that may cause you to sin. For example, if you struggle with any particular sin, be it gossip, sexual, substance related you need to remove yourself from any place, situation or group where temptations and access is freely available. We are human, and weak, and placing ourselves in a position where we are staring temptation in the face is not healthy! We will more than likely fall into or fall back into that sin because we are looking right at it! If we turn right round and focus on the Lord
and store his word in our hearts as these verses say, we will be equip to flee sin, and resist temptations.
We are called to be obedient to the Lord, we can’t do it alone!
I thank the Lord that he regularly reminds me of the importance of feeding on the word, prayer, fellowship and worship as is becoming quite apparent throughout many of these readings.
