My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the centre of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22 (AMPC)
Fill your thoughts with my words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. Then, as you unwrap my words, they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. Proverbs 4:21-22 (TPT)
It’s important that as we read the Word, we don’t just glance at it and forget it. Don’t just read it and walk away; let it change you. We need to spend enough quality time in the Word of God so that we understand it and let it penetrate our heats. Then it can impart true and radiant health into our beings. Another translation reads:
…listen well to my words;
tune your ears to my voice.
Keep my message in plain view at all times.
Concentrate! Learn it by heart!
Those who discover these words live, really live;
body and soul, they’re bursting with health. Proverbs 4:21-22 (TPT)
God wants us to pay attention to what He is saying because His Word brings life and health. Keep it in plain view at all times. I have Bible verses sellotaped to the inside of my kitchen cupboards and stuck on my fridge with magnets. I have key verses printed in large letters and pinned to my office wall. Why? So that I am constantly reading them and mediating on them, allowing them to sink down into my heart. Reflect on God’s words during the day until they “penetrate deep into your spirit”.
A few chapters later, we read:
My son, keep my words,
And treasure my commands within you.
Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart. Proverbs 7:1-3 (NKJV)
Cherish God’s words within your heart.
He sent His word, and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions. Psalm 107:20 (NSAB)
Prioritise God’s Word above all the distractions of life clamouring for your attention. When negative thoughts try to pervade your mind, you need to allow God’s truth to renew your thought process to His way of thinking.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… Colossians 3:16 (ESV)
The Psalmist said:
I have hidden your word in my heart… Psalm 119:11 (NIV)
The word “hidden” means to ‘treasure’. We should handle the Scripture like a priceless gift and make every effort to keep it close to our hearts. When we store it there, we are already furnished with matters of counsel and comfort before the trial comes. The Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance what we need to know at the time we need to know it and we can stand on those verses. When we hide His Word in our hearts we are equipped to minister to others as well. Jesus said:
“…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Matthew 12:34 (KJV)
When we bank the promises of God’s Word in the vault of our hearts, our mouths will have a word in season to share with a weary one. May God’s word be in our conversation. May it be in our prayer life. May it give us wisdom in the decisions of life. May it give us encouragement even when circumstances are hard.