How to walk in God’s blessing (2)

Your new nature is programmed to want to obey God in much the same way a calculator is programmed to compute numbers. When you put in the right information, you get the right response. And when you feed your new nature with God’s Word, it’s designed to give you the right response. That’s why Satan tries to keep you so busy doing other things that you don’t spend time reading your Bible. His goal is to keep you weak and ineffective. Paul wrote, “We all…beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV). A mirror is simply a reflector. And the more time you spend in God’s Word, the more you begin to reflect His likeness. But it won’t happen by just grabbing a verse here and there or skimming through a passage. No, it calls for renewing your mind every day with God’s Word, to the extent that the Holy Spirit connects with your spirit and produces a Christlike lifestyle. Jesus said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John 15:3-4). When food dries on a plate, that plate needs to “abide” in some hot, soapy water so that all the junk can be removed. That’s why you need to soak your mind in God’s Word. It removes not only gross sin, but hardened, baked-on, stubborn attitudes that keep you from growing in grace.