Get a Good Grip on God’s Word
by Rick Warren — June 15, 2022
From The Habits of Happiness
“Hold firmly to the word of life.”
Philippians 2:16 (NLT)
When you choose to dwell on a worry, it will always get bigger in your mind. But if you want to change the way you think and renew your mind, then you’ve got to stop dwelling on your worries and meditate on God’s Word, the Bible, instead.
How do you meditate? Well, if you know how to worry, then you already know how to meditate. Worry is when you take a negative thought and think on it over and over and over. On the other hand, when you take a passage of Scripture and think on it over and over and over, that’s meditation.
If your only contact with God’s Word is when you hear it at church, you’ll have a weak grip on God’s Word, and it can easily be pulled out of your mind.
But if you hear God’s Word and you also read it every day, then you’ll start to get a better grip. Then, if you hear it and you read it and you study it, you’ll get an even better grip. And then, if you hear it and read it and study it and you start memorizing and meditating on it, you’ll have a solid grip on the Word of God.
You’ll never hold tightly to God’s Word if you’re not doing all the important steps of Bible study.
Psalm 119:16 says, “Your laws make me happy. I never forget your word” (GW). Do you want to be happy? Following God’s principles will produce happiness. You remember those principles by hearing them, reading them, studying them, memorizing them, meditating on them, and then applying them to your life.
The Bible also says in Psalm 119:35, “Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found” (NLT).
If you’ve been looking for happiness in all the wrong places, then turn around. God says happiness is found in the path of his commands.
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