I had a birthday recently and I asked for a John MacArthur Study Bible in ESV in brown imitation leather. I couldn't wait to get it. Checking the computer to see if Amazon shipped it yet and being excited when I saw it was finally shipped. The excitement when it arrived. I wanted to get alone with the Bible and enjoy looking at it and reading it. Why aren't we with that kind of excitement and anticipation about spending time with God in His Word all of the time? We should be. Our hearts should be like the psalmist says in Psalms 42:1-2 "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" We should all desire to be like Mary sitting at Jesus feet learning from Him and not like Martha consumed with so many cares.
Christ is the head of the church and we are the body. The physical head is always in communication with the body and if that communication is disrupted then the body doesn't work well. The same with Christ. We have to be in constant communication with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through prayer and His Word if we are not we are not as effective in the body or in our sphere of influence such as our family, friends, neighbors, as well as we become fleshy. Being in Christ means more than being saved it is living our lives after the pattern of Christ. In Col 1:10 "so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." and in Col 2:6-7 "Therefore,as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." I think when we are consistently meditating on the Lord and His Word the more in love with Jesus we become. We will desire to live a life in obedience to His Word and desire to become more like Him. The result would be instead of taking God's Word for granted we will treasure it as we would the rarest and most precious gem. I believe we all have to check our hearts and make sure we don't become apathetic. From time to time that happens to everyone, but I think the people that need to guard against this the most are the people in the ministry. Why is that? Because reading and preparing messages for church or bible studies is part of the job as pastors and it can feel like a job because of deadline instead of a time of treasuring and listening through God's Word what He wants you to teach where that excitement and love for God and His Word would be passed to the congregation. Spending time with the Lord and in His Word is an amazing thing. It is the closest thing we can get to the Garden of Eden. We can't hear God audibly but we can through His Word and we can pour our hearts to Him and have an intimate relationship with Him. Let's go and find a quiet place where we can enjoy the presence of the Lord as we read His Word and pray.
