God’s Word gets inside us and changes us from the inside out.
from Sweeter Than Chocolate, Christy Bower
This is an excerpt from Sweeter Than Chocolate: Developing a Healthy Addiction to God’s Word. Used by permission.
Tag: Transformation
Applying the Bible to Our Lives: Cardio
When you get your heart involved and not just your head, you develop an exciting passion for God’s chocolate, the Bible. So how do we get our heart involved? I’ve partially answered this already.
Studying the Bible gives us knowledge of the truth, but meditating on God’s Word helps us to engage the truth in a more holistic way, allowing the truth to sink into the soil of our hearts. The final step to experiencing God’s Word is to do it.
“Just Do It” might be a popular workout motto, but it doesn’t work so well with spiritual obedience. That’s because forcing ourselves to obey God out of discipline or duty doesn’t reflect a life that’s been transformed by God’s Word.
The act of obeying God can be a mere cognitive decision to do so. This kind of superficial obedience does not produce notable change in our lives. To keep ourselves from rote obedience, we need to lead with the heart.
When we fail to engage our hearts, our obedience is mere legalism: obeying because someone told us to do it. While there might be something commendable about blind obedience as an act of faith, that’s generally for exceptional circumstances or areas where we are weak with doubt.
If we develop a passion for God and His Word, like our passion for chocolate, we will be eager to do what God wants us to do because it’s what we want, too. We won’t grudgingly give to the poor because God says so; we will generously give to the poor because our heart overflows with love and compassion for people. We won’t force ourselves to stop gossiping; we will become protective of the lives, feelings, and reputations of others who aren’t present because God loves them.
God’s Word changes our hearts. As our heart begins to beat in time with the heart of the Lord, the result is going to feel so natural it won’t seem like obedience at all. It will just become who we are.
As you read the Bible, listen for God’s heartbeat. God’s cardio program will look something like this:
- Read the Bible.
- Ask God to change your heart.
- Step out of your comfort zone.
- Pay attention to the results over time.
Let God’s cardio program work on your life and gradually (or sometimes in fits and starts) you will see the results of God’s cardio program. You’ll feel better than ever before.
You have nothing to lose except pounds of selfishness, but you’ll gain spiritual fitness and a tender heart.
This is an excerpt from Sweeter Than Chocolate: Developing a Healthy Addiction to God’s Word. Used by permission.
You Are What You Eat: Three Aspects of Digesting God’s Word
It’s easy for us to think of the Bible as a textbook full of information for us to learn and master. We consult the Bible to be a better person, live a better life, or have a better relationship with God. Unfortunately, that mindset becomes about our ability to master principles for better living. That’s not the purpose of the Bible.
We don’t need information; we need formation. Our lives—thoughts, attitudes, and actions—need to be formed by the Word of God.
You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” That’s true of God’s Word. We become what we read, don’t we? God’s Word gets inside us and changes us from the inside out. We can work on changing our external behaviors, but genuine, lasting change starts from within. That’s why God wants to get His Word inside us, not just in our head, but in our entire being. God wants to change us from the inside, out so we don’t have to frustrate ourselves by forcing external changes.
When the angel spoke, John began taking notes on the sermon, but God stopped him. God didn’t want John to compile information; He wanted John to eat the book so the words would become part of his life.
God wants us to digest His Word. I don’t mean like Reader’s Digest, condensing the Bible into a Cliff’s Notes version that is shorter and easier.
Just as we digest and metabolize food into our cells to give us health and vitality, we must assimilate God’s Word into our lives to give us spiritual health and vitality. For that to happen we must taste, chew, and absorb His Word so it gives us life.
Tasting God’s Word. The image of eating God’s Word leaves no room for nibbling. This is not a mandate for finicky eaters who select their favorite parts of the Bible, leaving the rest like a pile of leftovers on their plate. Ezekiel ate the scroll—the whole thing. And John ate the book—the whole thing. All of God’s Word is for our eating pleasure.
God chose a metaphor that involves the mouth instead of the eyes (reading the Word) or the ears (hearing the Word). What goes through the eyes and ears goes to the brain, but what goes through the mouth goes to the stomach. Curious, isn’t it? Why would God want us to get His Word into our stomachs?
Have you ever noticed that a baby puts everything in its mouth? That’s how a baby learns. The infant isn’t necessarily trying to eat everything within reach, but the mouth provides a great deal of sensory information such as size, shape, texture, firmness, taste, and temperature. So perhaps eating the Word of God is an illustration of learning, but the biblical metaphor also involves digestion. The mouth is the quickest way to get something into your body. God wants to get His Word into all of our being so it becomes part of us.
Chewing God’s Word. The digestive process begins with chewing because the saliva mixes with the food and begins to break it down. We might think of chewing as a means of enjoying God’s Word, turning it over in our minds as we contemplate or meditate on God’s Word. Rather than letting the words race past our eyes as we read, meditation takes time to savor God’s Word in unhurried delight. When we slow down, God’s Word becomes easier to digest.
Absorbing God’s Word. As a natural result of tasting and chewing, we begin to absorb God’s Word into our lives. Getting God’s Word inside us involves more than knowledge; it requires digesting the Word so it becomes part of who we are, not just what we know.
It’s easy to fall into a habit of dissecting the Bible rather than digesting it. Taking the Bible apart to study it is an academic exercise. When we absorb it into our lives, we experience powerful change.
When we ingest the Bible, it becomes part of who we are, and that flows out in our actions without any real effort of our own. As the Bible says, “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13). This outworking of God’s Word occurs as we absorb it into our lives.
Absorbing God’s Word is the work of the Holy Spirit. He interacts with our individual spirits to render the Word effective in our lives. The Spirit digests the Word, sending it to effect change from the inside out.
As we assimilate God’s Word into our lives, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we develop a passion, a hunger, and even an addiction for more of God’s Word.
This is an excerpt from Sweeter Than Chocolate: Developing a Healthy Addiction to God’s Word. Used by permission.
Sweeter Than Chocolate 