I Learned to Enjoy the Word

Years ago I began to take very literally the command "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). If fearing Him enough to keep His commands was my only duty, then I wanted all I did to be done in response to His Word. My Bible reading was no longer just a routine. I read, eager to know what God wanted of me, seeking to apply the passages to my daily life.

The amazing result was that I began to experience overflowing joy. Jesus had said that if I abided in Him and His Word abided in me, He would give me His joy (John 15:10, 11). I understood--and experienced--the phrase "fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11).

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). To have Christ's joy is to have His Word within. Jesus was God's Word expressed in a human body. As we take in His Word and become the living expression of that Word through obedience, His joy becomes our joy.

On the mornings when we awaken with a lack of joy, the cure may be to begin memorizing verses and filling our minds with scripture. We can have verses on cards available to glance at while getting dressed or eating breakfast.

"When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight" (Jeremiah 15:16).

Oswald Chambers said, "The joy of Jesus is a miracle; it is not the outcome of my doing things or of my being good but of my receiving the very nature of God." One of the ways we do that is to take His Words into our lives so that we become living expressions of His truth.

Dear Father, feed me on Your Word so that Your Word becomes life within me.

"The Word became flesh" (John 1:14).

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you" (Colossians 3:16).