Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
This verse from Psalm 119:105 reminds us that God’s Word is our guiding path in life. What does that mean? How can we apply this? I believe there is a simple yet not so simple answer to these questions – obedience. If we are in God’s word regularly, the Spirit of God works in and through us in ways that are not of ourselves, but are instead the transforming work of the Spirit. That transforming work begins to make us for like Jesus Christ. It begins to permeate who we are, how we treat people, frankly – all areas of our lives. Our desires and hopes start to look more like those of Jesus. God, through the Spirit, transforms us when we spend time in God’s Word.
However, we find in James 1 that we are to be not only hearers of the word, but doers. Here are James’ words:
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
This is where obedience comes into play. The Word is life giving, however, to truly experience this we need to be doers. We need to take action. We need to be obedient to the leading of the Spirit and hearing what we are being asked to do. If we truly believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we have faith the size of the mustard seed, we can step out in obedience even if we do not know what lays ahead. God knows and we can trust that God is going before us wherever that may lead.
On the journey together,
~Pastor Todd