“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD!” (Psalm 119:1)
If we are going to be joyful and live an undefiled life by keeping God’s testimonies then we must be those who know the Word of God. How much time do you spend searching Scripture? It seems so simple and basic that it should not even have to be asked, but so many people who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior neglect the Word of God. Christians used to be known as “people of the Book” — the Bible. They read it, memorized it, meditated upon it, spoke about it, quoted it, and it was preached from the pulpit on the Lord’s Day, but many in our day, including many “preachers”, neglect the very means that the Lord uses to regenerate the soul of a sinner. As it is written, “…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever…” (1 Peter 1:23).
Do you have a daily time when you faithfully seek God’s testimonies? How many times have you read through the Bible in your Christian life? Have you learned the lesson that the Lord taught the Israelites of old? “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3). Jesus proclaimed this very verse when He was being tempted by Satan: “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD’” (Matthew 4:4).
So, how much time do you spend searching Scripture? David wrote in Psalm 119:82: “My eyes fail from searching Your Word.” And again in Psalm 119:72: “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.” And once again, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). How many Christians can truly claim the words of these Psalms as their own? We spend hours trying to gain earthly riches, which are temporal and fleeting, but how much time do we spend mining the true, eternal riches of God’s Word. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Mark 13:31). It was said of the Bereans that they “…were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Could this be said of believers in our day? Now that your face is red from embarrassment, let’s do something about this neglect of God’s Word. Begin daily to feast on the Word of Life “…which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). Even as the Apostle Peter wrote, “…as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:2-3).