The children’s book “Harriet the Spy” was written the year I was born. We were kindred spirits before I knew how to read. Somewhere in my early-to-mid elementary school years I read the book, and it impacted me the way God’s Word is to impact those who read it.
What I mean is I wanted to be like Harriet (the male version of course), this 11-year-old aspiring writer who spies on her neighbors and jots down everything she sees in her ever present notebook. I read what Harriet did and I wanted to do it.
James 1:22 tells us to be like this concerning God’s Word (hear the Word and do the Word). We call this discipleship, which is more like an apprenticeship. We are not to only learn like a student but we are to do what we learn. I hope that makes sense.
Peter is our best example of this. When he saw Jesus walking on the water he thought if the Rabbi can walk on water I should be walking on water too - and he did at least for the short term. I think Jesus probably wondered why the other eleven disciples didn’t have the same faith and follow Peter out of the boat as well, but that’s another story.
Psalm 1:1 and 2 tells us, “Blessed is the person that is not in the habit of pursuing sin but rather finds joy and satisfaction in pursuing God through His written Word”. Blessed means happy, fortunate, prosperous, enviable - in other words, as a Christian I find happiness not as I am in the habit of doing sinful things but rather I find joy and satisfaction in being a God-chaser.
There’s a story about a Christian man that said, “Every day is a good day.” The man went on to say, “It’s what we put into the day that changes them or makes them good.”
In Genesis 1 we read that as God made the world, day by day, He said that the creation process was good - day by day. That should encourage us to ask: What are we putting in our lives therefore making them good days, making every day a good day, where are we seeking happiness, in what are we seeking and pursuing in order to experience a blessing or to be blessed?
It’s easy to drift. We want to be like Jesus, we want the Word to excite us, bless us, find our joy in it but we drift. I started running again at the end of last year and I am obsessing over the latest Nike running shoes. In other words I’m drifting. I find myself always thinking about these $250.00 world-record- setting shoes that I hope will cut seconds off my daily run. Like I’m competing with anyone but myself, right?
If I ever get these shoes it would be great but I need to make sure my goal is to find complete satisfaction in the Word of God, His voice, His promises and my complete identity in Christ, not as the owner of the latest and greatest running shoes. What are you in pursuit of? Who are you emulating? In what do you find a blessing?
He asked me to ask you that.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.