Loving God's Word

October 20, 2016 "In my inner being I delight in the law of God...Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day...your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart...I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food," These quotes from Romans 7:22, Psalm 119:97, Jeremiah 15:16, and Psalm 40:8 greeted me as I woke this morning, pointing me to the target I so often miss. The adjectives that describe these writer's attitude towards the Word of God reveal an enthusiasm we (I) often miss. "Delight," "Love," "Joy," "Treasure," are words I don't often hear when people speak of their interaction with the Bible. If we gauge our love for God's Word by the time we spend reading and meditating on it, we would have to admit that we look more to television, the internet, recreation and hobbies to bring us joy; we take a greater delight, we treasure these activities more than the Word of God. And we suffer for it. Television and the internet are filled with talking heads telling us everything that is wrong in this world, and whose fault it is. Recreation and hobbies, while fulfilling, feed only the soul, not the spirit. Apart from God's Word living in us, at the end of the day there remains an emptiness that doesn't go away. St. Augustine said that "there is a God-shaped hole inside each of us, and of course, only God can fill it." As the election year politics intensifies and the mud flies back and forth, we all become soiled by it, and need the "washing of the water of the Word" to cleanse our hearts and help us keep our perspective. To be sure, much is at stake, but our hope is not in who occupies the White House. Neither candidate comes close to being a savior; both need the Redeemer, as do we all. Tonight I am especially grateful for the Word of God. Without it, I wouldn't know of Jesus, I would be caught up in the whirlwind of political hot air that sucks everything into its vortex till it spits us out, spent and broken. Thanks be to God that we have the Word! At this time of year in particular, it is my joy, my delight, my treasure, and my love.