Tune My Heart, Episode 32
- Stacy Bishop
- Feb 27
- 3 min read
Happy Sunday, friend. As you prepare for worship this morning, let’s take a moment of quiet to invite God’s presence into your awareness today.
I’m sure this happens to you sometimes, too, but I recently was thinking about a very common Bible verse and it struck me a totally different way. It comes from 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We’ve all heard this before, but I think as a person who is regularly teaching the Word, I have always used this verse in a manner that says something more like, “the Scripture is useful for you to be able to correct, rebuke and teach others when they’re wrong.” While this is true, first and foremost, the Word is useful for me to be corrected and rebuked.
We live in a world that despises correction. No one wants to be corrected or held accountable for their actions and I wonder if that isn’t true for believers, too. We don’t want to be convicted or have our sins pointed out, so maybe it’s just easier not to read the Bible. Or to definitely cherry pick the verses that make us feel good about ourselves without challenging us to live lives that are more like what God has asked of us.
Even if it isn’t intentional, there are less and less people actively reading the Bible now than in a very long time. It’s definitely accessible, so that’s not the excuse. But how cunning of the devil to work at finding ways to distract us from staying in the Word—the Word that is good for drawing us closer to Him and equipping us for every good work to which He has called us.
Maybe this is why there are common threads of complaint about the lack of theological depth to current worship songs?
Regardless of the why and the how, the implications are huge.
I want to spend the next stretch of episodes together focusing on Psalm 119, with perhaps a few weeks of break for the Easter season. Most of us probably know it as the longest book of the Bible. You may even know that it’s an acrostic, with each section and each verse of it beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Primarily, it is a meditation on the importance and value of God’s Word. The first section begins with the Hebrew letter Aleph.
Let me read that first section over you today and then we’ll pray.
א Aleph
1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart—
3 they do no wrong
but follow his ways
.4 You have laid down precepts
that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast
in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame
when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart
as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees;
do not utterly forsake me.
-Psalm 119:1-8 (NIV)
Let’s pray.
Father, Help us to not neglect Your Word. Would You put in each of us a fire to want to spend time reading and hearing from You? As much as we don’t like correction, we know that we need it from You. In David’s words, “Oh that our ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees.” Help us to obey, God, when Your Word or when Your Spirit challenges us. Thank You for Your Word that was so carefully given to us. You have given us so many gifts and this is one of them. We praise You for it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
A printable/downloadable version of today's devo is available here:
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