Treasure God’s Word (2)

‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’ John 8:31 NKJV

John writes, ‘I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.’ (3 John 1:2 NKJV) In order to ‘prosper’, reading God’s Word must be one of your first priorities each day. Jesus said, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’ To ‘abide’ means to reside in a certain place. It makes us think of home, the place where you find joy, acceptance, encouragement, support, protection, purpose, identity, and rest. To ‘treasure’ God’s Word means to accept it as your highest authority, your compass for direction, your counsellor in making decisions, your benchmark for evaluating every relationship and action. In other words, the first and last word in your life. Many of our troubles occur because we base our choices on unreliable authorities, like:

  • Culture – ‘Everybody’s doing it.’
  • Tradition – ‘We’ve always done it this way.’
  • Reason – ‘It seems logical.’
  • Emotion – ‘It just feels right.’

All these are flawed because they come from within us, not from God. What we need is a perfect standard that will never lead us in the wrong direction, and only God’s Word meets that criteria. Solomon wrote, ‘Every word of God is flawless.’ (Proverbs 30:5 NIV) That means when His Word tells you to do something, you need to do it whether or not it makes sense to you, and whether or not you feel like doing it. You must say like Paul, ‘I believe everything that… is written.’ (Acts 24:14 NIV)

看重神的话（2）

你们若常常遵守我的道，就真是我的门徒。约翰福音8:31

约翰写到：“我愿你凡事兴盛，身体健壮，正如你的灵魂兴盛一样。”(约翰一书1:2) 为了能够“兴盛”，每天读神的话语必须成为你的首要任务之一。耶稣说：“你们若常常遵守我的道，就真是我的门徒。” “遵守”在这里的意思是指住在某个地方的里面。它使我们想到家，就是我们能够找到快乐、接纳、鼓励、支持、保护、意义、身份和休息的地方。看重神的话语意味着把它作为你的最高权威，你的方向指南，你的决策顾问，你评价每一个关系和行为的基准。换句话说，神的话应该是你生命中首先需要考虑以及最看重的。我们之所以会遭遇很多的麻烦，往往因为我们的选择是基于不可靠的权威，比如：

  • 文化–“每个人都在这么做。”
  • 传统–“我们一直是这样做的。”
  • 理性–“这似乎合乎逻辑。”
  • 情感–“感觉就是对的。”

所有这些标准都是有问题的，因为它们来自我们内部，而不是来自神。我们需要的是一个完美的标准，一个永远不会把我们引向错误方向的标准，而只有神的话语才符合这个标准。所罗门写道：“神的言语，句句都是炼净的。”（箴言30:5）这就意味着当神的话语告诉你去做某件事情时，你就应该去做，而不论你觉得它对你是否有意义或者你是否喜欢去做。你必须像保罗所说的一样，“我相信所有已经写在圣经上的……”（使徒行传24:14，直译）