The Word Of Life

 

                                                                                            The greatest thing that I have learned in these first three months in Africa is a profound dependence upon the Word of God. For my entire life I have known that the Scriptures are important. However, this has not kept me from neglecting the discipline of communing with the Word. The reality in my brain failed to penetrate my heart. Yet, this all began to change a few years ago. Knowing that my life needed the word of God was not enough. Somehow, I felt that I could live without it. Maybe it was that so many of my "Christian" friends lived without the Word of God and they seemed to do just fine. I had bought into a lie. They were not fine.                              Any christian that neglects the God's Word is disobedient.  

            I remember talking to a dear friend of mind named Mowgli. I remember telling him, “We do not study Scripture because we think that it will make our lives better, but out of devotion to God.” In answering Mowgli’s question the Spirit spoke to me. Had I not been guilty of this very mindset? I had looked to scripture to improve my life and fix my problems instead of seeing devotion to His Truth as my reasonable act of service. The blessing is a byproduct. If the blessing is our goal we are reaching in the wrong direction. Christ must be focal point, not ourselves.