Responding to God’s Word: Part 2 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

2 Peter 1:12-15

Transcript

Good morning. I want to help you head into your day with God’s thoughts in your mind, God’s values shaping your life and His priorities moving in your heart.

That only comes as we take time in God’s word and allow Him to speak to us. Yes, that’s right, not just to get some spiritual insight, not just to read some inspiring and motivational words, no, to hear from God Himself. That’s why we call the Bible God’s word.

He refers to it that same way. He wants to speak into your personal life through the things that are written in the Bible. I find this day after day in my own life. God speaking to me personally about the issues I’m facing, and He’ll do the same for you. Well, our focus all this week is on responding to God’s word, the Bible.

We started out yesterday in the book of 2 Peter in the New Testament of the Bible in Chapter 1, where Peter says, I intend to keep on reminding you all the time about the truths of God’s word because it’s in that daily constant reminder that your mind and life is shaped by God.

The value of taking time with God, he goes on in the next verse, verse 16.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye witnesses of His Majesty.

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Well, you remember that Jesus appointed 12 men, 12 apostles to be His representatives on Earth after He left and to record the stories of His life and his words, and that He would guide and lead them to build a movement that would sweep across this globe and hasn’t it done that and it’s touched even to you.

And this morning, even as you’re listening to this radio spot, God is speaking to you. You know, I’ve spoken to so many, many people who don’t follow God in their lives about the things of God and about Jesus Christ.

And if I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it many, many times that people think that the Bible is just a collection of legends that built up over hundreds of years and were finally gradually written down or that some very clever people put something together that would sound convincing. But just listen to Peter’s simple, honest words.

We did not follow cleverly devised myths.

When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter was one of those 12 people. He was there walking with Jesus. He saw the things Jesus did. He heard the words Jesus said, and he was powerfully impacted by Jesus’ own way of living and relating to people.

And he says when we put these things down, it’s not something that had built up over hundreds of years. We ourselves were there. We were eye witnesses. We wrote down the things that we ourselves saw. There was no time for myth to build up. We were the ones who were actually there when these things happened. We were eye witnesses of His Majesty.

Well, what you’ll find, as you just learn to take God at His word in the Bible, as you learn to trust Him and obey and honor Him in the things that he says to do in life, you will find that you aren’t relying on just some things that you’ve read or heard about, not even the things in the Bible, but you yourself know that it’s true.

Because as you’ve put it into practice, you’ve seen God come into the circumstances of your life time and time and time again, and He Himself is shaping you as well. Your life bears the marks of God all over it. If you are putting His word in the center of your life and honoring and obeying Him in life, there’s no better way to live.

And there’s no clearer testimony to the people around you of the reality of God than when you can say, OK, it’s not just some things that I’ve read and I’m telling you, I know God and here’s what He’s doing in my life. That’s what Peter tells us, and that’s why we come to God’s word each day.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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