Let’s take a look at James 1:25 again today. Abide—did you catch that word? Abide means to hang out, to stick around. The psalmist said that the person who meditates on God’s Word “day and night” will be blessed (Psalm 1:2). When you look into the mirror of Scripture, you not only see yourself, but you see what God wants you to become.
Read Psalm 1:1-2. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.
“Abiding” does not happen if we are in the habit of simply grabbing a Bible verse here and there or quickly skimming through a passage. Your prayer in coming to the Word should be, “God, show me how I can glorify You today through my obedience to You,” then you are going to hang out with the Word until the Holy Spirit connects with your spirit and brings about a change within you. That’s when spiritual growth breaks out.
Read James 1:25. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
James says if we will abide in the Word, looking intently into the law that sets us free and acting on what we see, we will be blessed. Our new nature has been “programmed” to want to obey God, much the way a calculator has been programmed to compute numbers. All you have to do is feed a calculator the right information to get the right response. Your new nature has been set up to give you the right response when you feed it with the Word of God.
Reflect: Look up the word, “abide” and make a list of synonyms for the word. When you are finished, look at your list. Do these words describe the time you spend in God’s presence?
Reflect: If you answered no, what will you do to change this? If yes, is there room for improvement?
Reflect: Can you explain what “delight is in the law of the Lord” means? Do you delight in God’s Word?
Reflect: Write this prayer and place it in your Bible. Make it a habit to truly abide in His Word. “God, show me how I can glorify You today through my obedience to You.”
Obedience is your ability to willingly and cheerfully live your life in accordance with the principles found in God’s Word.
For His Kingdom,
Tony Evans
Prayer: Lord, help me really abide in You and to meditate on Your Word. Instead of simply skimming for a verse, I want to truly look intently into the Word of God so that I can grow closer to You. In Christ's name, Amen.
