And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
One Halloween, our family had the very best trick-or-treating experience ever. We went to a new neighborhood that went overboard on handing out candy to kids. Within minutes, their buckets were full, and the candy kept coming. Soon their buckets were overflowing, their pockets were stuffed, the stroller was filling up… More and more and more!
That’s what God wants for you. But not with candy. He wants your Christian love to abound more and more in knowledge from his Word. God doesn’t want you to know just a little bit about Jesus. He wants to fill your heart and your life with more and more and more grace and truth and love every single day. Just like kids seeking candy, God wants us to seek out more and more knowledge from his Word.
Can we be honest? That’s often not our attitude when it comes to God’s Word. We just want a little bit. We’re content with hearing a few words from time to time. Many of us have even had periods in our lives when we’re apathetic and don’t care about God’s Word at all. “I know enough already. I’m fine!”
That’s a problem. We need knowledge of God’s Word in order to know what’s best. We need to hear from the Bible—over and over again—about God’s forgiveness in Jesus, so that we can be pure and blameless on Judgment Day. We need God’s Word to guide us in fruits of righteousness in our Christian lives. We need God’s Word living in our hearts and shining in our lives to give glory and praise to God.
So go trick-or-treating with God’s Word. Not just once a year. Every day. Like you’re doing right now! Not just to one house. Over and over again. There are sweet treasures on every page of grace and truth, of discernment and insight. So that your Christian loves abounds more and more every day in your knowledge of Jesus and the fruit of righteousness to the praise and glory of God.
Dear Jesus, like a kid craving candy, lead my heart to crave your Word. By your grace, fill me with more and more of your knowledge and the truth of salvation in Jesus, to your glory and praise. Amen.
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