Weighty Words

The first key to our devotional life is our relationship to the Word of God.

In John 1:1, the word ‘word’ is translated from the original Greek word LOGOS, which means “the sayings of God, a decree, a mandate or the order of the moral precepts of God, a thought, declaration, a weighty saying, or a recitation.”

Look at the description of LOGOS as a weighty saying. God’s word should hold tremendous weight in your life.  When we’re making life decisions, weighing options, determinations on how to respond to a situation or in whatever circumstance we may find ourselves, God’s Word should hold a lot of weight!  The Word of God should be your rule of faith and conduct.  It should bear enough weight in your life that you govern your life by God’s Word.  It should be the first thing you go to when you have a need.  It should be the first thing you go to when you have a question.  It should be the first thing you go to when you are in a place where a decision in life needs to be made that requires direction or input.  When you don’t know the answer, you are to turn to the Word for help, hope, life, direction, healing, satisfaction, rest, encouragement, and even correction.  His Word will work in your life, but you have to work the Word!  What do I mean by that?  To work the Word means to exercise the Word of God in your life.  In order to do that, you need to read or hear the Word; you have to respond to the Word in faith and then correspond with actions that reveal that you believe what the Bible says.  He gave His Word to you and I, instructing us how to live and fulfill His will.

“Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So, he says to you and the other trusted employees, “Look, I’m going to leave and while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.” Everyone agrees.

He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time, he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally, he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess–weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, “What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?”

You say, “Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.” I think the president would then ask, “But what did you do about my instructions?” And, no doubt the employees would respond, ‘Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!'” Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 242.

God has given us His word and wrote them as letters which communicates His will to us with specific instructions on how we are to live and conduct our lives, as well as His “Kingdom business” the church.  Without knowledge of the letters we do not have knowledge of His will.  Without knowledge of His will we cannot do what He wants us to do.  Our lives will quickly become a broken mess of defeat instead of a put-together life of victory which His Word tells us we can live!  Today, He is calling all of us to be people of the Word.  We have to maintain the first key in the “5 Keys to our Devotional Life” or the rest of the keys will not sustain us.  We must have accountable daily private devotions beginning with the Word of God.  His Word is Spirit and Life!  Commit to reading or listening to His word daily and see what God does to strengthen your life and the life of others around you!