John writes, ‘I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers’ (3 John v.2 NKJV).
In order to ‘prosper’, reading God’s Word must be one of your first priorities each day. Jesus said, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’ To ‘abide’ means to reside in a certain place. It makes us think of home, the place where you find joy, acceptance, encouragement, support, protection, purpose, identity, and rest.
To ‘treasure’ God’s Word means to accept it as your highest authority, your compass for direction, your counsellor in making decisions, your benchmark for evaluating every relationship and action. In other words, the first and last word in your life.
Many of our troubles occur because we base our choices on unreliable authorities, like: Culture – ‘Everybody’s doing it.’ Tradition – ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ Reason – ‘It seems logical.’ Emotion – ‘It just feels right.’ All these are flawed because they come from within us, not from God. What we need is a perfect standard that will never lead us in the wrong direction, and only God’s Word meets that criteria.
Solomon wrote, ‘Every word of God is flawless’ (Proverbs 30:5 NIV 2011 Edition). That means when His Word tells you to do something, you need to do it whether or not it makes sense to you, and whether or not you feel like doing it. You must say like Paul, ‘I believe everything that…is written’ (Acts 24:14 NIV 2011 Edition).
1 Chronicles 28-29, Acts 19:23-41
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