Depart Not From Mouth

DO NOT LET THIS BOOK OF THE LAW DEPART FROM YOUR MOUTH; MEDITATE ON IT DAY AND NIGHT. Joshua 1.8.

God commands that you must read His Word! That should be a good enough reason for any child of God to start reading the Bible daily! From an evangelical church where I preached lately, I got these statistics about the Bible reading habit of members which should be an eye-opener to us! 5% read everyday. 10% once a week. 20% irregularly or once a month. The rest never!

READ FOR SUSTENANCE - DAILY BREAD Job. 23.12.

Read the Bible daily to sustain ‘the Born again soul’ – like your body. Heard of Pokemon? Some years ago, most school kids had one! My grandson had one too! It died because he didn’t feed it daily on time! God said, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Mt 4.4). The apostle Peter said, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pe 3.18). Growing in the knowledge of the Lord does not come without reading the Bible. Many are trying to grow in spiritual life by listening to Sunday sermons or tapes or attending seminars! It does not happen that way.

READ FOR SUCCESS

Read and Obey. Do not turn to the right or left. Do not depart. You will succeed. That was God’s commandment and blessing to young Joshua when he took over the helm of the nation of Israel. People buy and read costly books on “How to succeed” by some guru and attend pricey motivational seminars by pundits! But they won’t listen to God!

READ TO SAFEGUARD FROM SIN. Ps 119.9,11

For keeping you from sin. For overcoming temptation. You know what the law demands. It tells you what to do and what not to do, what is right and wrong! Today there are no social or moral or ethical absolutes. No abiding standards. Everything keeps changing according to the whims and fancies of a people who revolt against all rule and authority and accepted norms of society. What you think is right, you do – in attitude, conduct, dress!

READ FOR SANCTIFICATION - CLEANSING from sin. Jn 17.17.

1 John 1.8 tells of the need for quick confession and God’s promise to forgive. Keep a short account with God. Keep yourself clean before God. Have a clear conscience. For example, after taking a good shower after a hard day's dirty job, you feel so clean! Have you felt the cleanliness of your body? Before you felt dirty, sweaty and smelly! Now you are clean and you spread the sweet-smell of the soap! Go to God and get cleansed every time you fall and sin! But don’t make it a habit as some do! Ask God to give you strength to forsake your sin.

READ FOR DIRECTION.

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. Psa. 119.105. The Bible gives clear guidance for many of our conduct in life. If we regularly read God’s Word we would know them. Many things we could do right without even a second thought.

THE SECRET OF DEVELOPING A DEVOTIONAL TIME AND A SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN LIFE: 1.DECISION. I will read! 2.DISCIPLINE. Fix a time, place and have a plan. Use Our Daily Bread; E-MAIL DEVOTIONAL 3. DETERMINATION. I will keep it up. I will not give up!! Persistence!

Pray and practice with me: Dear Lord, help me to discipline my life and reschedule my day and make reading Your Word and praying to You my priority! Amen.