Ten Good Reasons To Read Your Word

Hey Gems!!!

I pray each and everyone of you reading this post have had a great week and that you're weekend is going to be phenomenal. If not, I pray that God gives you rest this coming week in your mind and heart.

Today, I want to share something I found while reading my Bible. I found this article in my Woman’s Study Bible by Stormie Omartian, the author of The Power of a Praying Woman. As I read through the article I totally agreed with everything. Many people why they should read their Bibles and my number one reason is always because it keeps you grounded and balanced. I strongly believe that we all need to be in our Word each and every day, studying it in some form or fashion and not just reading. Taking the time to pick it apart, meditate and pray on the Word so that we may become stronger in God’s strength and not our own.

Here are the ten reasons that Stormie Omartian gives and my thoughts on why I agree with them:

1) To know where you are going.

Direct my steps by Your word,And let no iniquity have dominion over me. - Psalm 119:133

We cannot foresee the future and neither can we foresee where we are heading. Only God’s Word can guide us to where we are going whether it be down a good or bad path. The Word is the road map to all directions even though it’s written to put us on the correct path. God alone knows each and every step ahead of us. We are blind to the next second, minute, day and even week. Not only does God already know where we are going before we get there, but He also has laid out a path that we each can walk to get to our destination. Yes, we may all have different trials along the way, may even partake in different areas, careers or activities, but the end result is always to get to heaven to be with God. We can only get there by knowing which way to go while here on earth.

2) To have wisdom.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. - Psalm 19:7

Knowledge of God’s Word is where wisdom begins to grow in each of us. We can only obtain wisdom through reverence of Him and we get the reverence from His Word and applying it to our lives. Spend time reading through the book of Proverbs – it’s jammed with so much wisdom. It’s called the book of wisdom. Study it and get acquainted with it so that you can grow in it.

3) To find success.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. - Joshua 1:8

When we live according to the teachings of Bible – God’s very Word – life works and we succeed. His Word gives us commands, order, stipulations and the very way that we can live a successful life. How can you be successful without stipulations? You can’t. His Word will help us, all we need to do is take time read His Word and apply it to our lives, but the first step in doing so is grabbing your Bible and taking the initiative to open it and find it.

4) To live in purity.

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word. - Psalm 119:9

We must live a life of holiness and purity in order to enjoy more of the Lord’s presence, but we can’t be made pure without being cleansed through His Word. Now, when most people hear the word purity they immediately think about sex and being a virgin. Unfortunately, some of us aren’t. However, purity goes beyond a physical aspect. God desires for us to be pure in that way, but He also wants us to be that way spiritually, morally and ethically.

Purity is opposed to being guilty. It stands over against such conduct or attitudes as unfaithfulness to God's covenant (Hosea 8:1), rebellion against God's law (vs 1), and idolatry (vs 4-6, 11). Purity is related to guiltless, blameless or innocent behavior. It’s associated with understanding, patience and kindness. It can be seen how we speak, live our lives, love on others and ourselves, in our faith and in how we reverence God.

How can we be pure without His Word which shows us, clearly, how to be pure?

5) To obey God.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. – Psalm 119:33-35

If we don’t understand what His laws are, how can we obey them? His Word is full of His laws. Not just the main ones, the Ten Commandments, but there are several hundred other laws that God gave us. Simple ones such as to be strong, not to fear and so forth. The only we can fully obey Him is by knowing those very commands and then studying them and applying them to every aspect of our lives.

6) To have joy.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. - Psalm 19:8

We cannot be free of anxiety and unrest without the Word of God in our hearts. His Word gives us a joy that can’t be taken away, but when we are not in His Word we can lose focus and sight of it because of the world. We need to keep in His Word so that we can have that unspeakable joy that the people we admire in the Bible had. They stayed in His presence, so why not do it yourself? Look at King David and his son King Solomon. Ruth and Esther. Jesus Himself had unspeakable joy because He stayed in the presence of God never losing sight of His joy.

7) To grow in faith.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. - Romans 10:17

We can’t grow in faith without reading and hearing the Word of God. We can mature in our faith by looking at the many things Jesus and the Father taught to others back in those times. We can glean ways to live and how not to live. We can see that the trials we face are either consequences of our actions or God putting us through the fire to make us stronger, but we learn this only by His Word.

8) To find deliverance.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ - John 8:31-32

We won’t know what we need to be free of unless we study God’s word to find out. Just because we are believers and saved does not mean we don’t need deliverance daily. Can you hold your tongue when someone curses you out? Can you respect your parent when they hurt you deeply? What if you lose your job? Will you run to the pleasures of this world? We all need to be delivered from something and we can only understand what that is by opening His Word and picking it apart to full know what it is.

9) To have peace.

Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. - Psalm 119:165

God will give each of a peace that the world can’t give us, but we must find it first in His Word. Peace is something that we can and do have access to 24/7. All we have to do it is take, receive and accept it. We simply need to continuously seek Him to get that peace and we do that by praying, meditating on His Word and studying it.

10) To distinguish good from evil.

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” - Psalm 119:11

Everything has become so relative in the world today, how can we know for sure what is right and wrong without God’s Word? If you didn’t know that murder was bad, how could you know it was evil? In order to understand what is good and evil we need to be able to reflect on the Word and have it embedded in our minds.

Being in God’s Word is an essential. I won’t say I’m in His Word studying it daily because these past 2 months I’ve hit a severe dry spell. However, if I can’t find time to sit down and truly study, I make sure that I have a good devotional and/or do some scripture writing in which I pray that Word over my life and glean as much as I can from them. I notice a major difference in my life when I don’t study the Word in my attitude, thoughts and emotions. As someone who has dealt with depression on many levels, not being in my Word feels like I’m suffocating. Being in His Word keeps me grounded and replenishes me where I grow weary and weak.

Grab your Bible. 

Get a pen. 

Get some paper and study! 

It will benefit you in the best way possible.

Blessings,