When You Need God's Word in Your Mind Today

Good morning. This is Morning Prayer from Bearing Fruit.

What was already running through your mind before you opened your eyes this morning? Whatever it was, you can bring it here just as it is. Paul wrote to the church in Colossae about letting the word of Christ live in us. Let's bring this to God together.

In Colossians chapter three, verses sixteen and seventeen, Paul writes this.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:16-17

Paul wrote this letter from prison, to believers he'd mostly never met face to face. Just before these verses, he reminds them who they already are. They're God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. Everything he asks of them grows out of that.

Then he says, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. To dwell is to live somewhere, to be at home there. The word of Christ is the message about Jesus, and the things He taught. Paul pictures it moving in and settling down, like family who've been given a room of their own.

And he's talking to a whole church. He sees them teaching one another and singing together, grateful to God. The word lives among His people as they share it.

Many of us wake up with something else already living in our heads. One of you is rehearsing a hard conversation, point by point, before you've even sat up. Someone else has a jingle from a TV advert going round and round. And for some of you, the loudest voice in the morning is the one saying you've let everyone down.

Talk of Bible reading can make you feel guilty straight away. There's a reading plan you gave up on in February, and the bookmark is still somewhere in Leviticus. Paul isn't scolding you for a plan you dropped. He's calling you to welcome a gift, and it's yours because of what Jesus has done.

This was always God's way with His people. Before Israel entered the promised land, Moses told them,

These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

When you get up. God's word was meant for ordinary places, the kitchen and the road and the edge of the bed. It was talked about and passed on, a line at a time.

And you're not left to hold it all in your own head. On the night before He died, Jesus told His friends,

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

John 14:26

That promise was first for the apostles, who would go on to pass down what Jesus said. The same Spirit lives in everyone who belongs to Jesus, and He still helps us understand and remember what God has said.

So start small this morning. One verse is enough to carry into the day. Say it while the kettle boils. Say it again on the stairs. And verse seventeen shows where it leads. The word that lives in you starts to come out in what you say and do, with thanks. The word of Christ is good news first. In Jesus, you're forgiven and loved before you've opened a Bible today.

Let's pray. You can pray these words with me, out loud or in your heart.

Father, I come to You through Jesus. He's the Word You spoke to us, and He became one of us. He died for my sins, and on the third day You raised Him from the dead. That's the word of Christ, and it's the best news I'll hear today. By Your Spirit, let it make its home in me.

You're the God who speaks. You spoke, and there was light. You spoke through Moses and the prophets, and in these last days You've spoken to us by Your Son. Your words don't wear out. Isaiah said it long ago. “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

My mind is crowded this morning, Father. I've let worry move in, and old arguments, and a hundred things that don't matter much. I've filled the quiet with anything except You. And when I think about my Bible, I mostly feel guilty. Some days I've treated Your word as a job to tick off, and some days I haven't opened it at all. Forgive me. Thank You that You haven't stopped speaking to me, and that You still welcome me this morning.

Let the word of Christ dwell in me richly today. Give it a room in my mind, and let it stay. When I start rehearsing my worries, bring a verse to mind instead. Holy Spirit, remind me of what Jesus has said. Help me understand what I read, and hold on to it. Give me a real hunger for Your word, the kind that comes from love. And on the days I can't remember a single line, keep me close to Jesus anyway. He's the Word I need most. Let me share it, too. Give me something true and kind to say to someone today. And if I sing under my breath on the way, let it be thanks to You.

I'm praying the psalmist's words. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I can't see the whole day from here. I only need light for the next step, and You give it. So I'm leaving whatever woke me up in Your hands. Whatever happens today, I'm Yours, and what You've said about me won't change.

Now I bring You others who need Your word today. For someone whose eyesight is failing, who can't read the small print in their Bible anymore. Bring back to them the verses they've known for years. For someone who's just opened a Bible for the first time and doesn't know where to begin. Meet them in its pages, and give them a friend to read with. For my church, that we would teach and encourage one another, gently and wisely. And for anyone who woke up hearing only accusing voices. Let them hear the good news about Jesus instead.

Father, here's the day ahead of me. While I get dressed and make breakfast, keep a verse close by. When I walk out the door, or sit down to work, go with me. Help me live the words Paul wrote. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” And tonight, when I lie down, let Your word be on my mind at the end of the day as well as the start.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Take a moment of quiet now, and bring Him whatever's in front of you today.

Hear this blessing from Paul's letter to the Romans.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13