Are you Shut up in His Word?-11-17-14
The word of God tells us
over and over that we are to be sanctified. Sanctified means to be set apart
and to be made clean.
In order to get this way we must
step aside and shut our selves up in His Word.
I am going to challenge
myself in the next month or so before the year ends to go through the entire Bible cover to cover as they say.
This means I will have to devote countless hours to listening or reading the
Word of God.
Your
word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my
path psalm 119:105
“I pray for them. I do
not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all
Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in
the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep
through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I
was with them in the world, I kept
them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of
perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now
I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy
fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your
word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I
am not of the world. I do not pray that You
should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil
one. They are not of the
world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You
sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that
they also may be sanctified by the truth. John 17:9-19
Jesus Himself prayed for us to be sanctified, as well as mentioning
that He too would sanctify Himself.
How are we sanctified? By the truth, how do we find the
truth? He said God’s word is truth. If God’s word is written in these things we
call our Bible then we can indeed sanctify ourselves with and in putting time
into learning the Truth, or the Word of God!
We cry out that we want to know Him but we are not giving Him
access to our lives. We want to learn more about Jesus, we want to get closer
to Him but we do not see the need to read our Bible daily let alone once a week
or for some of you it could be that you pick it up on Christmas and read the
story of Jesus’ birth and that may even be less than the norm.
I want to challenge you to know God more, to separate yourselves
unto Him! The only way to know Him is to spend time reading, devouring and
really shutting ourselves up in His words.
Why do I say we need to shut up in His words?
S- Seek
Him – Look into the Word and read until you feel like you have made a
connection. By connection I mean something that pulls on your heart to desire a
change.
Hear with
your Heart- Listen with your heart because that is what God looks at, He knows
your heart. He knows if you are being real to yourself and He knows if you are
being real to Him.
Understand
that He is the Word- For in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
God! His Word, our Bible is everything
we need to survive until Jesus comes! It has directions, it has connections and
it has instructions in right living. We need to understand that He wants to, no
longs to, speak to our hearts and minds through His Word and our prayer.
Trade
your Time- give up an hour a day that you would either text with friends, watch
a show, surf the net, read your email, or whatever you do to socialize and
spend that time in prayer and reading the Bible. Challenge yourself to do this every day for
two weeks, more if you are really serious about making a change in your life!
Upgrade
your Christian Walk- stop doing the things you know God would rather you not
do; just because its not a commandment does not mean God wants you to do
something that is wrong for you.
Clean out your heart from those old you feelings, find
strength to walk away from friends who bring you down. You know who those
people are, we all have them.
Pray-
pray, pray, pray! Take time, make time to pray every day, on a regular basis. I
don’t care if you pray your way to work, or while in the shower or doing
laundry, just pray; spend time talking to God personally. When we pray corporately
that has its purpose, but when we prayer personally we are open and raw before
the Lord. Open to His healing, encouragement and yes chastisement. Raw because
He sees us as we really are, be it prideful or self-seeking or if we are truly consecrated
before Him.
I think that is the best place to be, raw before the Lord.
Uncooked by the world, fresh and full of vitamins and minerals from the pick!
Ripe off the vine! Let’s consecrate
ourselves before the Lord this week, and the next few weeks! Lets take, and
make the time fruitful before the Lord, and Shut ourselves up!
In His Word, and In His love we can grow closer to Him, be
more like Him and learn to live and love like Him.
Dear heavenly Father. Thank you for your guidance in the Word
today. Shut us up before you and consecrate us that we may be like You, in
Jesus name, amen.
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