Your BFF?

"The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian." (A.W. Tozer) I don't think truer words could have ever been penned or spoken. The Word of God, when it is understood well, then followed with the tenacity of one not willing to let go of one truth contained within can actually become not only the safest route to travel, but the shortest! It may not seem so while we are struggling with what route to travel on occasion, but it proves to be the shortest because there aren't any "repeat passages" along the same route as we might endure if we chose to travel our route in our own strength, power, or willful disobedience.

The Eternal is ready to share His wisdom with us, for His words bring true knowledge and insight; He has stored up the essentials of sound wisdom for those who do right; He acts as a shield for those who value integrity.  God protects the paths of those who pursue justice, watching over the lives of those who keep faith with Him.  With this wisdom you will be able to choose the right road, seek justice, and decide what is good and fair because wisdom will penetrate deep within and knowledge will become a good friend to your soul.  (Proverbs 2:6-10 VOICE)

There are stored riches within the pages of the Word of God, waiting to be discovered, not just in our time of need and pain, but during the seasons of rest and regeneration we also have the privilege of experiencing. It seems we discover things easier when we are hurting or trying to get through some trial, doesn't it?  Why is that? I think it is because we are seeking for something to make it "better". We are actively looking for a way of escape, or we need the intervention of God in our lives in order to get us through whatever it is we are going through. We seek because there is a need. Wouldn't it be an amazing thing if we learned to seek his wisdom just as much when we don't have a problem brewing as we do when we feel the flames of the fire licking at our heals?

Our soul has a lot of things clamoring to become "best friends" with it - ranging from passions we probably would do best not to pursue to those things which God actually wants to see become permanent character traits we embrace and walk within. Wisdom found in the Word of God is something also clamoring to become the best friend of our soul - but this friendship carries a degree of protection unlike any other best friend our soul could embrace! I have a "best friend" (my BFF) who always is there for me, has my back when I need my back covered (and that is more often than I may want to admit), and seeks to bring a smile to my face when my days have become a little mundane and dreary. Yet, as good of a friend as she is to me, God's Word is an even better friend! It has my back; bears me up under great loads of pain, grief, and sorrow; creates excitement in my life when the routine of life seems to have created nothing but the mundane. It is indeed the light of my path and the center of my decision-making.

Why is it we take God's Word for granted at times?  It may be we just aren't allowing it to "befriend" our soul in the way God intended. A few years back, when I was first beginning to develop a bond with my BFF, it wasn't as easy to hang with each other as it is now. It is like we finish sentences for each other and actually know what the other is thinking! Why? We have bonded because we have discovered little truths about each other, learned what makes the other sad/happy, and the like. In other words, we have embraced the challenge of learning to relate to one another. God's Word is all about relationship - it is his way of relating to us - bringing us insight into who he is, how he acts, what he expects, where he finds joy, etc. The more we allow the Word of God to "bind" us to him, the more we will find we begin to think like him, know what makes him happy/sad, etc.

It isn't about reading the scripture from cover to cover each year.  It is about allowing what we do read to begin to affect us - to form a bond between us and the one who took the time to give us these words down through the years through many writers, faithful to their call in life. It is about being affected by the truth, drawn into the deeper places of discovering his heart within those pages, in turn developing a closeness and bond which cannot and will not be broken. This bond actually becomes the thing which holds us secure when our world is rocking and the dizziness of life spinning out of control seems to take us deeper into peaceful places instead of chaotic disruption.  Just sayin!