Books.
I love books.
I can spend hours at the library or at a bookstore (if there aren't children with me).
And when I need help with something, need a new skill or need an answer or direction, I immediately try to find the perfect book to help me (thankfully I am not as impulsive as I used to be in this area-- my husband has a lot of patience with me).
But even when I get some new books and find out that they do indeed address my need perfectly, if I don't apply what I've read they don't help at all.
Right now I'm sitting in my living room with a stack of books beside me. There is one book in the stack I haven't used much at all. It would help me with my current art project if I opened it up and used what the author shares. Yet, I haven't (but I intend to).
Have you done this?
Maybe with an exercise program?
Or, a new way of eating?
What about with your faith?
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:13d, "the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe."
Scripture can't perform its work if you don't believe it, if you don't act on it, if you don't give it a chance.
The Hebrews writer writes in chapter 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
We can know a lot of stories from the Word and still not know the Word. It takes a lifetime and more to know what is written in it.
I read Oswald Chambers devotional today and found it so good. I want to share part of it with you:
"The golden rule to follow to obtain spiritual understanding is not one of intellectual pursuit, but one of obedience . . . spiritual darkness is the result of something that I do not intend to obey.
"No one ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test regarding it. We disobey and then wonder why we are not growing spiritually."
Act on the Word.
Act on the truths you know.
In A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis writes, "You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by the rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? The same with people... Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."
Did you take my challenge to read the Word for 30 days? How's it going?
If you aren't doing it (and don't already read the Word daily) try it. Your life will change.