We can dig down into God's Word, but God wants to use His Word to dig down inside of us. We can go deep in the Word, but God wants to go deep in us. We can find a nugget of truth in the Word and hidden treasures, but God is seeing hidden treasures inside of us today. Just because you are going deep in the Word does not mean that God is going deep inside your heart. He only goes into our heart as we begin to apply the Word. Knowledge of His Word puffs up, but practice of His Word builds up and causes us to walk in the love that He has chosen us to walk in.
What keeps us from applying His Word to our lives? Self-deception.
1. Good intentions. When I explain the Word to someone and they say, "I know." " I am" " I plan to do that when God's timing is here."
This is nothing more than self deception. What did both Jesus and John say? They said, "Repent for the Kingdom is at hand." When you are stepping out in faith to do a work for God timing is important, but where sin is involved the only perfect time to come out of it is today.
Matthew 3:2 And saying, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
2. Self Justification. When I explain the Word to someone and they say, "I know what I am doing is wrong, but right now this is where I am at and God knows my heart." Just because it would be hard and we would pay a price to come out of sin does not give us the right to justify our actions. Be careful because the enemy has deceiving and seducing spirits. Just because you 'feel' that God has accepted you sin because of your circumstances does not mean that is true. Our feelings and our understanding can be easily darkened and deceived.
1 John 3:7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
3. Hardened heart and understanding. When I explain the Word to someone and they say to me, "I see that word for word in the Bible, but I don't believe that way." When we begin to dismiss the Bible and refuse to submit to it's authority we open the door for every type of deception to take us captive. Have you ever had a child that you told them over and over that their behavior was going to land them in trouble, and they treated your warning as if that was YOUR opinion and they had a right to ignore it? A child like this is going to be in trouble with the authorities very soon. Does that mean that you are always right? NO. But you love that child and if that child chooses to ignore you completely and dismiss your words they will get into trouble. Maybe you don't understand all of God's Word. Maybe you think part of the Bible doesn't apply for today, is that any reason to ignore all of God's Word and Wisdom. If we do this we are on the path of destruction. God loves us and gave His Word to us to be a guide to help us through life. A light unto my path. Just because parts of it are hard for you to understand does not mean that you should push it under the bus and ignore all the good that God gave to us in His Word the Holy Bible. We as parents make mistakes, but God's Word is without mistake. Our understanding cannot grasp it, only faith can unlock it's mysteries.
Psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
4. When we begin to emphasize our works, our relationship with God begins to falter. All around the World and all through out history men and woman have 'done works' for God. Works are a byproduct of our faith, because faith without works is dead, but works were never meant to be the focal point of our religious duties. When the work becomes more important than our relationship to God we begin to falter in our character. The world is full of people today both Christian and non-christian who glorify the works they do instead of glorifying God. People who put religious practice above relationship with God are mean-spirited, and they do not walk in true holiness and love. They have an outward appearance of religion but they do not have the inner work of the Spirit in their lives. It was religious people that crucified Jesus and religious people are still killing today in the 'name of God' Jesus said to them:
Matthew 12: 32-34 33"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34"You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35"The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
If we want God to dig down deep in us we must lay aside the sin and the weight that easily besets us. If we want God to find treasures in our hearts we must open our heart to him and accept his Word at face value and let it mold our hearts. We want to dig down deep into God's Word and we should, but when we let the Word dig down deep into us we will find that he makes all things new.
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