God’s Life-preserver

We all read lots of stuff; and we read it for all kinds of reasons. If I get a new power-tool, I’ll read the instructions carefully so as to get the best out of it as well as making sure that I don’t inadvertently chop a finger off.

Or, perhaps, you’re cooking something special, so you follow the recipe to the letter. It may be a novel, for entertainment, or a road sign so you don’t get lost. All this stuff that we read instructs our mind and may also touch our emotions and help our decision-making. The effects may be very beneficial; but they can also be damaging, depending on what it is that we choose to read.

It isn’t just what we read. What we hear can be just as effective, both for good and for ill, especially when, like the psalmist, circumstances are difficult.

It’s then, especially, that we need God’s word. There’s something about God’s word that makes it different from anything else that we might read or hear. If we are willing to let it, it will impact and nourish the human spirit within us – that God-given part of us that is our life. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that, like a ‘sharp, two-edged sword’ the word of God can penetrate to the very centre of our being.

That can be scary. Hebrews goes on to say, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Perhaps there are ‘thoughts and attitudes’ that we’d rather weren’t judged. But the thing is this: so long as ungodly thoughts and bad attitudes have a place in our hearts, they get in the way of God’s healing and restoring word reaching our spirit and ‘preserving life’.

When we go through difficult times, it can be emotionally very draining (‘suffering’ in today’s verse refers more to emotional distress than to physical pain). When God’s word touches our spirit, it rises up within us and sustains our mind, will and emotions. It’s full of promise. Paul writes: We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). Why don’t we lose heart? Because, Paul has just said, we speak what we believe (2 Corinthians 4:13-15).

When we allow God’s word to touch the very heart of our being, our spirit will become stronger and give us inward renewal and all the emotional resources we need. God’s word really is a life-preserver.