Love The Lord Your God

With All Your Heart

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Many people love to play games that test their knowledge.

A knowledge of the Bible is important, but God desires us to be saturated with His Word and to internalize it so we can grow in our relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to make us more like Christ.

Consider these benefits of internalizing the Bible: joy and rejoicing; spiritual success; a tool in spiritual warfare; correction; light for our path; wisdom with problem solving; and stimulating faith.

Learning about the Bible just to increase our knowledge can lead to spiritual pride. But allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us by the Word helps us navigate through life’s twists and turns and respond in love to God and to each other.

Many books may inform, but only the Bible can transform.

Our Daily Bread – March 8, 2014