The world in which we live is growing darker by the hour. Crime runs rampede, the cost of living is outrageous, and wages are not keeping pace. How will you make it without a close personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
Last week I wrote about being patient with yourself. Today I am writing about your eyesight.
Dear friend, 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
Keep my message in plain view.
God’s message is his word. His word leads the reader to his son—Jesus. As a Christ-follower, learning the word (the Bible) is the focus rather than reading the word. You read a good book, but you learn the word of God.
To do this, you must always have the word of God close to you. In other words, you should have visual images of it around you. There is no prescribed method of accomplishing this. What works for me may seem silly to you. What works for you may seem stupid to someone else.
The method is not the focus; learning is. You may need to get creative to do this. Perhaps a coffee mug displaying a verse of scripture, a key chain, or a trinket will work for you. One of my screen savers is a verse of scripture that I often turn to when stressed about finances. I used a translation that spoke to me and wrote it out in unique font, with italicized words on a bright background.
The point is to find what works for you. Keeping the word of God before your eyes helps you focus on what is essential. This translation of Proverbs says to CONCENTRATE. Consider what that means. To concentrate means giving your full attention to something, in this case, to the word of God.
I remember back in the day that reading through the Bible was my goal. I drudged through so many parts (boring or uninteresting) to accomplish the goal. That was, is, and always will be the wrong motive for reading the word of God.
Sometimes I read the same verses over and over again because I see something profound or believe there is something profound I need to see. The goal is to learn the word of God.
Learn it by heart
The late motivational speaker Zig Ziglar coined, “repetition is the mother of learning, which makes it the father of action, and the architecture of accomplishment. Learning by repetition is in our DNA. The more you see and think about it, the more solidly it is embedded in your brain.
A close personal relationship with the godhead is about patience, but it is also about keeping your eyes focused on the word of God.