Is His Word Precious to Me?

“Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”    
Jeremiah 23: 28-29
 
So many people I meet tell me of their experiences with God, their dreams, signs, circumstances, feelings, hearing God speak and more. I know God does work through circumstances and experiences, but I don’t hear as often about the scripture that stepped into their life and revealed the Lord to them personally. We all know intellectually how important the Word of God is, but is it constantly precious to us and just as dramatic of an experience? I find when there is distance between the Lord and me, I usually don’t find His word as precious. But when there is intimacy, it’s like a whisper of love in my ear.
 
The scripture says, "let him who has my word speak my word faithfully." I can’t speak it, if I don’t have it. I can’t have it, if I haven’t turned to it as my support and teacher. I won’t turn to it, unless I’m vulnerable before God to let Him speak to me. His word is like fire and a hammer, able to break rock in pieces – meaning breaking my heart too. Sometimes we run from that part, the pain of being real before the Lord and talking about the stuff that is too tender and painful to touch, so we avoid it and avoid true intimacy with the Lord. Perhaps we are scared He doesn’t really have an answer for us in His word, so when we are reading the time becomes dry and ritualistic.
 
But this verse gives us hope that it won’t stay like that. His word will come in and change us, sometimes hit us right out of the blue. And He is so gracious to bless us with Himself, when we keep reading. I pray this devotional will be a spark to dig into the Word of God as your lifeline and see all that God does in it. There’s no condemnation or guilt being loaded for not reading, but an exhortation to taste and see the Lord really is good and His words are the sweetest you will ever hear. Here’s just a sampling of what God’s word has been doing for me personally in the last couple months, perhaps this will be a timely word from Him to you as well.

I was super stressed about a situation at work and all the things I had to accomplish and what others also had to get done. I kept praying over and over for the Lord to help, but all my anxiousness remained and I just kept repeating the prayer. I was reading through Jeremiah.
 
“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord… “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”                   Jeremiah 17:5,7
 

That’s what finally gave me peace, I stopped desperately praying and instead said to the Lord, “I trust you Lord to help,” and waiting in faith for Him to move. I was trusting in my strength to get everything done. This verse was convicting me of what I was actually doing and encouraging me what to do.
 
Another day, I was feeling the weight of failure and my sin before God and desperately trying to break out of the performance trap and focusing too much on works, rather than remembering God blesses, loves, and accepts me because of the cross and His grace.
 
“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”            Isaiah 54:10
 
Even when I am a flake, His love and peace will not be removed, and I needed the reminder of God’s character, He’s not an angry boss, but one who has compassion on my failings and on me.

Then, I had a devastating blow to my faith and was in full crisis mode, including weeping uncontrollably because I had lost all hope that my situation would ever change. It was impossible and that totally depressed me looking at a future of never receiving my heart’s desire. I had forgotten who my God really is. This is where the Lord led me.
 
“‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”            Jeremiah 32:17
 
 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”                                                              Jeremiah 29:11
 
 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”                                           Romans 15:13
 
“Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.”
                                                                                                                   Psalm 56:9
 
God is all powerful, He alone can do the impossible and He has good plans for me ahead, not misery. He is the God of hope and He will give me the Holy Spirit that I may have faith and hope. And best of all, God is for me. I needed all of these scriptures, a fuller picture of who the Lord is, all that He does so I could battle the lies in my head and restore my faith. You can’t just break out of a crisis of faith, or ignore it. It’s a cry of help to the God who rescues you with His word at just the right time. It’s just as miraculous as money coming in at the last minute or a healing. Jesus says He prays that our faith will not fail when the enemy sifts us like wheat. It’s priority number one to God, so He will answer.
 
So this is just a glimpse of what the word of God and the Lord has been doing in the past couple months for me. My mind and emotions can become such a mess and usually no one sees any of this, just the Lord and me, but that’s where intimacy begins, when you are alone with someone. And here’s what is so exciting about the Word of God, we can’t duplicate somebody else’s experiences to have that intimacy with the Lord, but we can read the same word and be transformed and ministered to it just the same. You have His word too. Ask the Lord to make it precious to you and to bring a new level of intimacy to your relationship. Speak His word faithfully to yourself and pass it on to one another. It will perform miracles, even when you can’t see them. By faith, believe God is blessing His word in and through you..

                                                                                                                         Christy Cox