Thought for 24 November

 Hebrews 4:12-13

For the word of God is full of living power.

  It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires.  It exposes us for what we really are.  Nothing in all creation can hide from him.  Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes.  This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.

Today’s reading begins by telling us that the word of God contained in our bibles is ‘full of living power’.  Although the words were written many years ago, I believe that they hold as much meaning for us today as they held for our relatives and ancestors 50 or 100 or 200 or 300 years or more ago.  With day-to-day living having evolved and changed over all these years, surely that goes some way to proving this ‘living power’.  Probably every one of the hymns we love to sing or heard sung were inspired by words from scripture and this inspiration continues to this very day.

It has been written before that the word of God is personal to each one of us.  If a group of us were sent out to study a passage of scripture and highlight what was to be learned from it, there is every chance that each member of the group will come up with something different from the others and the likelihood is that all would be right, another example of the word being ‘full of living power’.

Within the pages of this wonderful and unique book we can find comfort, assurance, guidance and inspiration.  The words can also make us feel uncomfortable.  Today’s passage certainly had that effect on me knowing that ‘nothing in all creation can hide from him’ and that ‘this is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done’.  If we take the words from scripture that tell us how to live and behave and compare them to how we actually live and behave, surely we would all have that feeling of discomfort.

We have the rules for Christian living laid down for us in our bibles and I think that most of us brought up with Church or Church organisations being part of our lives will know them well.  All we are asked to do next is to do our best to apply them in our day-to-day lives which will go some way to demonstrating our faith to others.  We will all have choices to make at certain times in our lives and following the rules given to us by our heavenly Father will always lead us to making the right one.

Prayer – Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, for the living, powerful word of God. We pray that whatever it takes, your Holy Spirit will continue to help us develop spiritually into the type of person you want us to be.  Help us resist the temptations that would hinder the work of your Holy Spirit within us.  Help us learn how to behave in ways that are pleasing in your sight and help us by this and other means to take the Good News to others.  Amen