This is taken from 2014 somewhere prior to Christmas. I found the title interesting and thought it deemed it appropriate for this time in history! Get set and dig in to the Word today!
Are you Shut up
in His Word?
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 ourselves up in His Word.
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.
Suggested