The Word: Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Reflective Questions:

1. What does it mean to you when you hear that God’s Word is living and active?
2. Have you experienced the living and active power of God’s word? How? And if you haven’t, why not?

Before I left home to attend Tennessee State University in the fall of 1998, I received a letter from my uncle Jimmy who was a strong believer.  In the letter, Jimmy outlined what God had impressed on his heart to share with me from Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Even as an unbelieving 18 year old, the first verse of that chapter stuck in my head: “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”.

What was so remarkable about that verse is that there were already moments as an 18 year old that I could look back on in my life and I could really say “I have no pleasure in them”.  How many more moments were in my future that would leave me with a feeling of regret? How many more things did I have to experience to come to the same conclusion? Unbeknownst to him that letter impacted me greatly for one reason…it contained God’s word.

Isaiah 55:11 says “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it”.  In simple terms, God’s word empowers us to be able to divide between what God wants and our desires (soul and spirit), allows us to experience physical healing by aligning our body to conform to his word (joints and marrow), as well as gives us direction in making sure our thoughts and actions are out of a pure motive and desire to give him glory (thoughts and intents of the heart).

Because God’s word is living and active, it’s to our advantage to take in as much of it as we possibly can in order to align and conform every part of our being to his will.  Even as God commanded Israel to collect manna for only one day, we should return daily for his provision.  I pray that we would all go back to basics…meaning God’s word. Our culture doesn’t have a shortage of resources explaining, elaborating and amplifying what God’s word says.  I pray that those resources don’t ever become a distraction from the very thing we need: The Bible itself.