Showing posts with label Knowledge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knowledge. Show all posts
Changed Through Meditation
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:2
Meditation means “to think deeply and
continuously about something.” For a Christian, this means remaining in the
presence of God and pondering each truth He reveals about Himself until it
becomes real and personal in your life. This takes time. In His Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus accused certain would-be followers of calling Him “Lord” and yet
never doing what He told them (Luke 6:46). They had the correct truth in their
heads, but it had never translated into obedience. When you meditate on
Scriptures, the truth moves from your head to your heart and results in
obedience. As the psalmist said: “Your word have I hidden in my heart, That I
might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).
When you know God's Word in your mind but not
in your heart, it means that you have learned the principles and concepts and
doctrines of God, but you have not come to know Jesus personally. You can
reject a doctrine, or ignore a concept, or challenge a principle, but it is
much more difficult to ignore a Person. You can have Scripture in your mind and
still sin against God. There are those who can recite long passages of
Scripture and yet live ungodly lives. However, you cannot have Scripture fill
your heart and continue to sin against God. When God's truth is allowed to
touch the deepest corner of your soul, the Holy Spirit will transform you into
the image of Jesus Christ. Don't just read your Bible; meditate on God's Word
and ask Him to change your heart.
Ask yourself how you should change so you're living as God wants. Knowing and
thinking about God's Word is the first step towards applying it to your
everyday life. If you want to follow God more closely, you must know what he
says.
- Excerpt from “Experiencing God Day-By-Day” by Henry and
Richard Blackaby
Truth Is To Be Experienced
When He had stopped
speaking, He said to Simon,
“Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Luke 5:4
When
Christ teaches you something about Himself, He implements it into your life
through experience. As the crowds gathered around, Jesus chose to board Peter's
boat and teach the people from there. All day long Peter sat in the boat
listening to Jesus teach the multitudes. At the close of His discourse, Jesus
allowed Peter to experience the reality of what He had just been teaching the
crowd. The crowd had heard the truth, but Peter was to experience
it.
Jesus put
His teaching into language a fisherman could understand. He told Peter to put
out his nets into the deep water. Peter hesitated, “Master, we have toiled all
night and caught nothing.” Peter had been fishing all night, had washed and
repaired his nets in the morning, and then listened to Jesus teach. He was
tired. He probably was not expecting a dramatic encounter with God at a time
like that. Yet, as Peter obeyed Jesus, he pulled in such a miraculous catch of
fish that his boat almost sank! Peter was filled with amazement and recognized
that he had just experienced the power of God (Luke 5:4-11).
Peter
learned that with a command from Jesus, he could do anything. Thus, Jesus was
able to reorder Peter's priorities from catching fish to catching men (Luke 4:10). Peter's obedience led to a dramatic new insight into the person of
Jesus. This was an invitation to walk with Jesus in an even more intimate and
powerful way.
God does
not want you to merely gain intellectual knowledge of truth. He wants you to experience
His truth. There are things about Jesus you will learn only as you obey Him.
Your obedience will then lead to greater revelation and opportunities for
service.
- Excerpt from “Experiencing God Day-By-Day” by Henry and
Richard Blackaby
