The One Habit that transforms us

UV 368/10,000 The One Habit that transforms us Colossians 3 v 16 Col 3:16 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. The riches of God’s wisdom resides in His Word, Jesus Christ. The teachings of Christ are the fountainhead of His wisdom and grace. The source of a large river like Jordan are three smaller springs. Similarly, the Word of Christ is the wellspring of joy, wellbeing, wisdom and glory that lies deep inside our hearts. The word “ dwell” implies to remain in one place or under the same roof lifelong or for a substantial part of life. It means that we need to focus on knowing, understanding and applying the Word of God. When Christ presides over our lives as King of Kings, His Word resides in us giving us access to all wisdom. Solomon soon after he was anointed and crowned as king asked for an understanding heart to know how to judge his people. He was specifically given a wise and understanding heart specifically for the purpose of ruling his people. But, we are given through the Word of Christ all wisdom- wisdom in our thoughts, emotions, desires, wisdom to discern, wisdom to apply, wisdom to number our days, wisdom to make a difference, wisdom in our decisions, actions and reactions. We are also given grace or divine strength to apply, to obey, to change, to put into practice. The Word of Christ is a good root. In our garden we have an ancient teak tree’s massive root on display. The branches of the root over a hundred years had, invisible to the human eye, spread out massively in different directions to be able to hold the big and growing tree in place through many storms. Today, the tree has gone, the root remains. Similarly, the Word takes root invisibly in our hearts and has several powerful underground branches like understanding, knowledge, practical application, insight, appreciation, uncommon sense, faith promises, precepts.. The underground root system holds up visible branches of teaching, admonition, praise and worship. The inflow will lead to the outflow. The inflow of the Word will lead to the visible or audible outflow of conversation or communication laced with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. As we teach it, we will be taught and admonished as it is a double-edged sword cutting both the hearer and the speaker. As we sing, we will be admonished about where we are falling short by the Holy Spirit. If we store it in our heads, it will not affect our lives. It will only be so much theological knowledge. As my mentor used to say, the shortest journey of transferring it from our memories to our hearts( less than a foot ) is the longest, most difficult and also most impactful. “Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” implies that it needs divine enablement to have a heart of constant worship. I have been a musically challenged person, able to enjoy soulful music but not able to sing or replicate it. But, when I wrote the “ Great I Am” long song under inspiration, the Lord confirmed with this uni-verse that it was divine enablement that produced the lyric of the song. I had one objective in mind to make it longer than the longest Psalm 119 and to make it as comprehensive a praise song as possible giving expression to all that the Lord is and does and will do in our lives. Today, praise God the long song reaches thousands of people every day on the net. The music or song is only the medium of the galloping horse, the Word is the rider. The music exists for the Word and not the other way around. Prateep V Philip