ForgottenWoman

Quick and Powerful!

Do I Understand What That Means?

Many friends and readers are Christians – those who believe that Jesus is the way to life, that Almighty God created us with purpose, and His Word is the source of truth. That’s a mouthful – but in reality, it’s more than that. It’s a belief system that so many claim to follow, but do we really?

Some of us have even spent years memorizing Scripture because there is a part of us that believes that hiding God’s Word in our hearts will keep us from sinning against Him. Pause for just a moment and consider how many verses of Scripture you can pop off without giving much thought to it. Then, just for fun, think about when you learned those verses.

Stick with me. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing to say we believe. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to memorize Scripture. In fact, those who know me know that I believe strongly in memorizing God’s Word intentionally. Those who attended Christian schools, AWANA clubs, or Bible College were required to memorize in our younger days – and that’s why we have such a treasure trove stored up within our minds and hearts. But each of us as adults has to take the responsibility to continue to work to memorize – or it just won’t happen.

Anyway, today’s thoughts are concerning the POWER of Scripture in our lives. In my Bible studies and in counseling, one of the most repeated lines that anyone within earshot of me hears is, “Renew your mind!” “Intentionally renew your mind!” And everyone smiles and nods and thinks, “There she goes again!” And often when we open the floor for discussion and ask exactly what that means, the answers come: “Read the Bible every day.” “Listen to worship music.” “Think good thoughts!” “Be grateful!” And all of those are good ways to renew our minds.

But there is one way that I reiterate often, and yep! I’m going to go into it again today. I heard from one of my counselees this week about this, and it has remained on my mind since! She had an “aha” moment where she realized that her thinking and mood were altered because she made a decision. (We’ll get there in a minute.)

Scripture says, “The Word of God is quick and powerful!” What does the word ‘quick’ mean there? ALIVE or LIVING! It then says, “and sharper than any two-edged sword; piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Go ahead, read that again! “The Word of God is quick and powerful; sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Your good thoughts aren’t alive. They don’t have that kind of power. Your worship music written by man isn’t alive. It doesn’t have that kind of power. ONLY God’s Word has that kind of power!

So, my personal goal has been to flood my system with God’s Word. I think of it as saturating my mind, because the Bible also tells us often to renew our minds. Our thoughts determine our emotions, which determine our actions. Now, back to flooding my system/saturating my mind and heart with God’s Word. I cannot sit around all day and just read my Bible. Can you? No. I’m pretty sure that most of us do not live the lives of monks, sitting in monasteries all day studying Scripture. That’s unrealistic – and even the idea of devoting as much time to Bible reading and prayer as we do to other things simply isn’t what God expects of us. There is too much in His Word about working, taking care of others, loving in action, preparing our food, etc., to think otherwise.

So, what are a few ways that we can renew our minds with Scripture regularly?

*Turn on Scripture being read aloud while we are going about our work – whether it’s preparing ourselves for the day, washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning out a drawer – you know, the piddly things we have to do sometimes.

*Play Scripture being read aloud while driving to and from appointments or events.

*And my favorite – set your phone or television on YouTube or another app and find 8 hours of Scripture reading and let it play while you sleep! No, when I do this, I don’t consciously hear every word, but my mind subconsciously hears it and is being renewed while my body rests! You can even find it with ocean sounds, or rain sounds, or whatever calming sounds you enjoy.

I mentioned earlier that this is on my mind this week after hearing from one of my counselees (whom I’ve been encouraging to do this for over a year now). She usually argues with me that she prefers her worship music – and I, being a lover of music, understand – but I also know that NOTHING has the power to pierce even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart – except God’s Word! She was having an especially difficult few days and made the decision to turn off her music and turn on Scripture being read aloud. She was excited to realize that it literally transformed her mind: her mood and her thinking followed.

My question today is simply – do we really get it? Do we really understand the power of saturating our minds with the Word of God? Are we intentionally doing this? THIS is the answer to so much: to anxiety. to negative thoughts. to wounds that need healing. to fear. to lack of faith. to doubt. to stress.

Think about it.

As always, thank you for your love and support.