April 1 - Living According to Your Word

Today's Reading:
2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21
1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:3
Psalm 119:9-16 
Click on Text Link to Read Online

Focus Verses: Psalm 119:9-11
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Insight:
God's Word is useful for knowing God's will and for learning how to live in purity and truth. It is important to have a desire to know God and his will. This whole-hearted desire motivates the believer to read, apply, study, know, and memorize Scripture.

Response and Action:
If I want to know God and his will for my life, I need to spend time in the Bible. I will seek him with my whole heart and commit myself to walking in the light of his truth. I will make time every day to read the Scripture, to prayerfully consider how it applies to my life, and to be as responsive to it as I can be.

O God, thank you for the Bible. Open my mind to understand what it says. Make my heart soft and ready to receive it. Give me the wisdom and the will to obey and respond to it. Show me your ways, O Lord, guide me in your truth and lead me for you are God, my savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: Hebrews 4:12-13
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Recommended Reading:
Transforming Bible Study: Understanding Scripture Like You've Never Read It Before
by Bob Grahmann