Like James 1:23 says, if we are only a hearer and not a doer, then it is like looking in a mirror and walking away. It is a momentary reflection. The Lord has designed His word to dwell in our hearts so that we won’t sin against Him.

Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

2 Timothy 3:16 says that Scripture is given to us for course correction ~ His word leads us into His righteousness (conforming our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will and ways). It is His experiential truth that keeps us free ~ truth implanted in our hearts that changed our thought processes. John 8:31-32. Truth seeded into our heart will bear fruit that glorifies Him.

Psalm 119:45 says, “I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.” We are called to freedom. John 8:36 says, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” When we seek to walk in the footprints of His word, we will remain free.

It is when we veer off track, that we get ensnared. Off track we are subject to deception ~ fiery dart lies penetrate and lodge in our thought processes. When we look intently into His word, James 1:25 laid out a truth for us to follow.

It says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” We can look intently, but unless we apply what we saw, and continue in it, we will forget.

I love Ephesians 1:11. It is one of my anchor verses. It helps to secure me when I fall into a new trial. “…being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Our trials have an eternal purpose. What the Lord allows is being worked into our lives like a potter works water into clay.

Romans 9:20 says, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this?” Have you ever questioned God from your crucible trial?

Our trials purposely put us on display. Ephesians 3:10-11 says, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” His purpose ~ always at work.

Paul’s radical conversion set him on the pathway to go through hard trials. Acts 9:16 was the Lord’s words to Ananias. It says, “For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

If you need a refresher course of his life, I encourage you to read 2 Corinthians 11:23-33. 2 Corinthians 4:10 says, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

Acts 20:22-23 gives us a glimpse of Paul being chained to God’s purpose. It says, “…I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem…the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”

He was warned by others. Folks pleaded with him, weeping, begging him not to go. Acts 21:13 says, “…For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

2 Timothy 1:9 says, “Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

When did He chose us? Ephesians 1:4 says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Titus 1:2 says, “In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Psalm 119:89-90 says, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.”

Where is your hope? In tumultuous times, Jeremiah recorded crucible words that are timeless. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “…His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”

When we look intently into God’s word, He reveals the hidden truth that we might have missed in our reading. I consider looking intently into His word synonymous with my watching tide pools. Wondrous is beyond us, so it means the Holy Spirit has to open the eyes of our understanding.

I love Psalm 25:14 in the Amplified. It says, “The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.”

God’s word is His recorded work for us to explore, ingest, and mature spiritually. John 1:14 says of Jesus’ disciples that He was the living word that dwelt among them. They looked intently and beheld His glory. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 3:18 bid us to do the same, “…are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

I was reading along in Acts and stopped abruptly at 15:18. It says, “Known to God from eternity are all His works.” My mind went into sort of a kaleidoscope of verses. We are part of His works! Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

When were they prepared? From eternity. Psalm 145:5 says, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works.” Let me pick up the Hebrew word for wondrous from Judges 13:19. 

It means something beyond the human ability to grasp, do, or achieve. Psalms 119:18 says, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” I love the last part of this verse. Psalm 145:19 says, “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Reminder: all means without exception.

Often when I meditate I look intently at a word or short phrase. I let it soak into my thought process. Why was worthless connected to revive? Worthless things have no intrinsic value. There is nothing of quality ~ no substance. My dad used to say of meringue that it was like sticking your tongue out the window.

Worthless things bear no fruit that others can enjoy, nor fruit that glorifies the Lord. Romans 13:12 says, “The night is far spent the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” The Amplified says to fling away.

Meditating on Psalm 119:37 helped me to evaluate what I am reading (I don’t have a TV). God’s word shone a light deep into the crevices of my heart with these questions: Is it worthless or worthwhile? Does it build me up or leave me empty? 

Several times in the book of the Acts the word intently was used. Here is another. Elymas the sorcerer withstood Saul and Barnabas as they were sharing the gospel with the proconsul. Acts 13:9 says, ‘Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him.”

As I was meditating on Psalm 119:37, my mind went back to the scene in Acts. It says, “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things…” The Hebrew word means to see, look at, perceive, consider, gaze at, look intently at. 

Looking intently at worthless things means that our attention is captured. It is wasted time, never to be regained. It could be magazines, books, movies, self-help, or mindless activities. Let’s pick up the last of the verse which says, “…and revive me in Your way.” Revive means to be restored to life and health.

Wisdom from above is first pure, according to James 3:18. There is no human mixture. It is peaceable. In Acts 6:10 the religious leaders could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit in which Stephen spoke.”

Colossians 2:3 says, “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” James 1:5 says that if we lack wisdom, we can ask the Lord and He will give it to us. Each situation we face has His specific wisdom needed to navigate.

God’s wisdom is not stagnant, but fresh, vital, and essential. Proverbs 2:6-7 says, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright…”

Each trial, hardship, impossibility, or adversity that we face is already equipped with His wisdom. His special provision is stored up until needed. Amy Carmichael, missionary to India, wrote that His grace to endure and to conquer is never given until the moment in need.