Hear, Think, DIg Deep, Treasure, Keep and Do

UV 2913/10000 Ear+Think, Hear plus Think, Hear and Keep, Hear and Do
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Luke 11 v 28

Blessing is not an event or a single act but a life-giving, life long process. We do not inherit blessing but blessing can inhere in us. When someone in the crowd watching and listening to Jesus hailed Him saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, the breasts that fed you,” as if the source of His supernatural wisdom, grace and power was the woman who gave birth to Him. Jesus became the source of blessing as He overcame sin( symptoms of which are lusts, conflict, pride, hatred, conflict, misery, diseases, curses, failure, depression and so on) by not yielding to it and overcame the other universal problem afflicting every human being born –death by yielding to it. Jesus responded by saying, “ Yes, You are more blessed if you hear the words that I speak and keep it. “ The word “keep” means to remember, to meditate, to apply, to treasure, to obey, to carry out, to do, to practice habitually as a way of life.

Indeed, believers who are faithful in hearing and keeping the Word in their hearts, meaning respecting the presence of Jesus in our hearts, honouring His Word transmitted to us through the generations in spoken or printed form or in song, are more blessed than even the very mother of Jesus- Mary. Mary herself, Luke wrote, treasured the words and actions and reactions of Jesus in her heart and she was so blessed in keeping the Word. The hurt caused to the mother by the immense suffering of the Son of God that she bore was healed by so keeping the Word in her heart. In so keeping and doing, we too, will overcome both sin and its impact on our lives as well as overcome death and its sorrows. We will eat the fruit of the tree of eternal life and enter through the pearly gates the Eternal City. We will be like the tree that never dries up, always flourishes in all seasons and fruitful in all stages and aspects of our lives. We will be like the house with deep foundations on the rock of Jesus that the storms of life manifested in the daily reality of sin and the ultimate reality of death cannot shake or disturb. Peace will flow from our hearts like a river and surround us like the waves of righteousness of the sea in the form of the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control.

When we look at the words – earth and heart- we find both words are comprised of the same letters. Both words when broken into its constituent syllables are ear- th or hear-t. When ear- th aand hear –t are expanded it means the same- hear and think. When we hear or read the word, we must not take it casually or lightly but meditate deeply on it. We need to dig deep to lay solid foundations to our lives in its various aspects and dimensions: our attitudes together constitute our hearts. Are our attitudes pleasing to the Lord ? If so, we have like David, the heart that God endorses as shaped after His own, full of love, grace, power, mercy, faithfulness, blessings. My personal experience is that as I delighted in the word from the age of seventeen, the Lord moved me from hamartia or shortcoming in many areas of my life to ‘hyperbole’ or overfulfilling or over achieving.
Prateep V Philip