For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13
When God speaks in His Word, it is an invitation for us to experience the truth in our lives. The truths in God’s Word are NOT complicated. They’re not difficult to understand. They are difficult to put into your heart and into your life. What you do after you read that scripture will reveal what you believe about God’s promise. Will you trust and walk in faith believing or will you look for an immediate answer and, if you do not see it, begin to doubt? Has there been a time in your life where you asked God for something, and you did not receive what you asked for when you asked for it? Did you close your relationship with Him and turn elsewhere to get what you wanted? In doing this you let what you’re experiencing determine what you believe. It should be completely the opposite.
A great tragedy in the lives of many Christians is that they bring the Scriptures down to the level of their experience rather than bringing their experience up to the level of the Scripture. Too often we claim A scripture against THE scripture and try to demand that God move as WE BELIEVE He promised. Why don’t we take our experience, and lift it up to the level of ALL of Scripture? Our single, individual experience is not the full measure of truth. We must let the Scriptures do what they are intended to do — transform our lives in such a way that the promises become true in our experience. God invites us in His word to experience the truth. It waits to be true in you.
We read God’s Word and seldom realize that God is speaking to us every time we open His book. Isn’t it amazing what we hear with our head that never seems to enter our heart? Yet it’s out of our heart that our life comes, not out of our head. You may feel that God is pleased with you because you have acknowledged in your mind that God is who He says He is. Is that “believing in your heart?”Having truth in your head does not mean it’s going to change your life at all. How do you know when a truth has gone from your head to your heart? Your life will change and will match the revealed truth!The promise of peace becomes peace in your life; faith leads to works.
What can we do to perform the works of God? they asked. Jesus replied, This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He has sent. (John 6:28-29)
Jesus was clearly stating that what we believe becomes the way we live. When our heart matches our head, there will be change in our hands and feet. There will be a change in our choices, words, actions, and the way we spend our time. When we put the truth of God to work and start living our lives like we truly believe, our lives will be transformed from the inside out. It doesn’t matter what our circumstances are. We begin to believe that God is God no matter what and His truth never changes.
When you read God’s, word remember that it isn’t just a story that doesn’t apply to you. It is not just a book of verses to memorize. God wants you to know and experience that truth in your own life. He wants you to apply what you understand and believe it in your heart. Believe that it is for you, that it applies to you and live every day like you believe! Until you believe, you won’t fully experience God’s truths in your life.
Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
