Proverbs 4: 20-22 (Amplified Classic)
“My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh.”
What a promise these few verses offer! We are instructed to give careful attention to every Word given by God with the guarantee of a life full of health and healing. The Bible literally has the ability to bring wholeness to every area of our life for there is nothing outside of the reach of His Word. The Bible is medicine and must be taken daily to receive the maximum benefits offered. It’s important to note that we don’t read the Bible out of religious obligation or duty, but out of a pure heart hungry for the Bread of Life. That doesn’t mean to say you will always feel like reading your Bible, because you certainly won’t. But if you are faithful and consistent in it, God will reward you greatly, whether feelings are present or not. Remember Isaiah 1:19 says, “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land.”
Read carefully the words, “Let them not depart from your sight, but keep them in the center of your heart.” This speaks of intentionality on our part. We must make a decision to allow God’s Word to be the dominate factor in our life by putting it before our eyes and hiding it within our heart. Nobody can do it for you. Never allow yourself to be caught up by the demands of life and neglect taking God’s medicine daily. If you are inconsistent in your time in God’s Word, you will notice the effects and it is to the detriment of your life in many ways. But if you act on God’s Word and do what it says, you will experience a life beyond your wildest imagination; a life full of peace, joy, victory prosperity and triumph over all opposition! The following verses reinforce the importance of making God’s Word your highest priority in life. Read them carefully and let them get deep down inside of you.
- Colossians 3:16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
- Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
- Isaiah 55:10,11: For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
- John 15: 4,5,7: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
- Psalm 119:105: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
- John 14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
- Matthew 4:4: But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
- Isaiah 40:8: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
- 1 Peter 1:23: Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.