A Wise Woman is Word-Filled

Brrrring.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Do you have a minute? I just wanted to pick your brain about something I’ve been struggling with.”

When someone calls you for help, do you counsel from the Word?

Are you prepared to answer life’s questions biblically?

We have already addressed knowing when it is appropriate to offer advice here. My friend, Anne, just wrote today about offering a listening ear and just being there. here

But when someone comes to you specifically for advice, are you tempted to meet their “felt needs” instead of lovingly telling them what scripture says?

I had a situation like this this past week. A friend called specifically for some advice, and after listening, I told  her what I would do according to what scripture teaches. She called me knowing that I would tell her truthfully what I thought.  These are the friendships that matter. Where each person is teachable and dependent on the other to “set her straight in love” if she thinks she is going to do something that dishonors the Lord.

How can you be a word- filled friend/parent/ mentor?

Here are five ways:

1. Spend lots of time in the Word. 

Read it every day. Morning and evening. Psalm 119 tells us that the psalmist valued God’s law so highly that he delighted in it, (16) sought it with his whole heart (10) and stored it up in his heart (11).

Have you ever seen or heard of the TV show “Hoarders?” These people are practically buried and smothered under the junk that they value. The psalmist, on the other hand “stores up” or “hoards” God’s word in his heart. Why? So that he will not sin.

He delights in God’s word. What is delightful to you? What captures your attention?

2. Read the whole Bible.

Your view of God will be distorted if you do not read all of  scripture. For instance, if you only read the Psalms and Proverbs, and some of your favorite NT books,  and never read  a book like Leviticus, you may miss out on the focus of this book, which is the holiness of God. Your view of God will then be skewed, not knowing that God does care about how we worship and live.

3. Meditate on the Word.

Reading is great, but if it doesn’t change your life, it really is useless.

We read to DO. Obedience is really not optional for a child of God. We are his servants, doing His will, yet we sometimes think that we can pick and choose what we feel like doing. Not so. Meditating on God’s word can be as simple as writing what you have learned on a 3X5 card and carrying it with you until you master it. Are you struggling with lashing out at others with your tongue? Write out a verse as reminder, and carry it with you until it changes you. It could be a week. It could be a month, or longer. But meditating cements it into your mind. God says ______ about my unruly tongue. I must agree with God, and change.

Spurgeon noticed this problem in his day as well. In a sermon discussing the need for meditation on scripture and not just mere reading he wrote:

“The eye glances but the mind never rests. The soul does not light upon the truth and stay there. It flits over the landscape as a bird might do, but it builds no nest there, and finds no rest for the sole of its foot.“

4. Read as if your life depends on it. It does. here

When trouble comes, you will stand or fall depending on how you view scripture.  It comes down to our obedience. Are we just casual  hearers? Or are we hearers and do-ers. Meaning, are we letting it go in one ear and out the other, or are we actually heeding it. Are we obedient? If not, why not?  John 14:15- If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

5. Memorize the Word.

Why? Because when you don’t know what to do, God’s word will ring through your memory guiding you. It will encourage you as you recall promise after promise given in scripture. It will correct your wrong thinking with the truth. When you are afraid, it will comfort you. When you are lonely, it will console you. The Psalmist memorized so that he would not sin against God.  He feared offending a holy God.

I used an object lesson last week in my teen girls class to help them learn to be word filled. Everyone’s favorite candy: m&m’s.

Yes, I brought in a big bag and held them up. I told them that each time they see or eat m&m’s they should think about these “m’s”

1. Memorize the passage.

2. Meditate on the passage.

3. Master the passage. Meaning meditate until it changes you.

Does this post seem just so basic? Sometimes the basics are what we really need.

What ways have you found helpful to fill your mind with God’s word?

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Linked to Courtney