Faith Corner: Applying God’s word to your life
We are to obey God’s word. Reading God’s word daily and listening to God’s word preached regularly in church or occasionally on radio and television without obeying it or applying it to our lives is not profitable.
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It doesn’t change us; it doesn’t make us Christlike which must be the goal of our listening to God through Bible reading and study.
Obeying what God tells us is critical. To obey is better than sacrifice and rebellion to God’s word or living contrary to what God tells us is compared to the practice of witchcraft. (2 Samuel 15:22-23)
Thus, following God’s instructions matters. No. It is critical. The Bible is God’s standard for right living. It is the precious revelation of God’s will for us. It is the Creator, the “Manufacturer’s Handbook” for living a fully functional life (John 10:10b). In fact, to obey what the Bible teaches is to obey God. (Deuteronomy 5:6-21)
Obeying God’s word is extremely important to our developing a vital and close relationship with Him. God wants us to know Him through His word; and if we put Him at the centre of our lives, we will reach our potential and become all that God wants us to be.
Our Lord Jesus put it this way: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33 NLT)
History is filled with philosophers who know what the Bible said but failed to obey it or apply it to their lives, keeping them from believing and changing.
The Bible, God’s word, is more than lists of dos and don’ts. It is a system of divine expectations of belief and behaviour which if we faithfully carry out will bring Gods riches and blessings.
Life itself depends on keeping God’s instructions (Deuteronomy 4:1; 5:32-33; 16:20). However, when God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, it was not because Israel had earned this right but because God was gracious and faithful to His promises to Abraham.
The purpose of the rescue from Egypt was to make a covenant with them. Obeying God’s law was a response to the covenant with God.
Indeed, the covenant guaranteed the people of Israel abundant and meaningful life if they kept the law – the covenant document which consists of broad principles, patterns and standards for right living.
Obeying God’s law is appropriate response to God’s covenant gracious love and faithfulness to Israel. The Lord Jesus instructed His disciples to keep the Ten Commandments and the demands of God’s Word, His revealed will, as an expression of their commitment to Him. (Matthew 22:37-40; 5:17-19; John 14:15-21).
For the Lord Jesus Himself, His “food” or total commitment was to do the will of His Father. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. (John 4:34 NKJV).
God urges us to obey His Word (Isaiah 42:23, 1Corinthians 10:11 and 2Thessalonians 3:4). The words of the Bible itself cry out to us: “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22 NLT).
For us to get the most benefit from the Bible, we must read or hear well, understand well, and apply well the Bible to our lives. Obeying God’s word or the application of the Bible lesson to your life is the most important part of our Bible Reading and Study.
Reading and understanding the Bible is not enough. “Even Satan knows enough of the Bible to be able to quote it.” (Matthew 4:1-11). The critical thing is to make God’s word the standard for our behaviour and the goal of our actions. The truths of the Bible never change, but people’s life situations are different and are constantly changing. And so we must continue to read and study the Bible and learn the new things God wants us to learn and grow in our relationship with Him.
In application, we answer the “and-so-what?” question of Bible reading and study: “Now that I know what God wants me to do, how am I going to start doing it?” You want to obey God’s word.
The following are a few practical considerations and steps in the process of applying God’s word:
1.For the Bible to change our lives, we need to
•receive the Bible message personally
•think about our own lives and identify what needs to change as a result of what we see in God’s word
•lay out a plan to make that change happen in our own life.
2.Dr Gary Kuhne suggests the following practical questions for use when we want to obey God’s word or apply the Bible to our lives.
•What does this passage teach me about God, myself or the Christian life?
•What does this passage rebuke me about? What should I stop doing?
•What does this passage correct me in?
•What should I start doing to correct my sin or wrongdoing?
•What does this passage tell me about righteousness?
•What new habits should I start building?
3.When you want to apply a Bible text or passage to your life, carefully think and work through the following questions:
•What is happening in this passage?
•What was the intended message for the original audience?
•What did the people in the passage learn?
•What did God want them to do?
•How is this similar to what is happening in my life or in the world today?
•What is the message for all human kind?
•What are the timeless truths or principles?
•What does this truth mean for me?
•What should I change about my values, believes, attitudes or character?
•What about my thoughts and motives should change?
•What kind of person does God want me to become?
•What steps will get me to that goal?
•What should be my first step? How should I get started?
Now go on and put into action what you have decided on.
A Bible teacher comments, “How much richer would your life be if you left each devotional Bible reading time or a Group Bible Study Meeting with a new perspective and a small change for the better? A small change every day adds up to a changed life – that is the very purpose of the Bible!!”
(The author is a Leadership Development and Cross-cultural Ministries Consultant, an International, conference speaker and formerly General Director / CEO of Scripture Union Ghana. Email: [email protected] / [email protected])
