miss me much?

thanksgiving break was wonderful. i have so much to be thankful for. family, friends, shelter, food, job, air, hairy legs, etc. the list is endless. but i found something else that i am thankful for that i continually overlook: God's word.

God's word is special. it isnt just something that has been written down for us to follow. it isnt an instructional manual. if it were it would handle the temporary and it would only last until something else better came along that had better instructions. its so much more than that.

this whole revelation came after a good four days of not spending any time in the Word. yeah, ill admit it. it is a big struggle for me to keep on track with doing my quiet times when everything around me isnt as it should be. i like my routine and when it is thrown off in the least little bit, i get sidetracked and dont spend time with my Maker. but these days helped me come to a realization that i needed. i had come to find out that i missed reading God's word. over the course of those few days, i felt like something was off. that i was missing something. that i was missing a piece of me.

God's word IS living and active as it is stated in Hebrews 4. it consumes you to the core of who you are. and until we understand its working power in our lives and in the lives around us, we will see it as just another book. and that isnt what it was created for. understand that now. not later.

this passage helped me understand this truth, and I hope it does the same for you:

"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”

⁸ and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

1 Peter 2:1-10