I recently taught a series at church on Investing in God. My third message in the series was about investing in the word of God and I took a radically different approach from the usual, you need to read your bible talk. I focused on Hebrews 2:1, which talks about not letting the word slip away.
The real reward of the word of God is not gained from simply reading or hearing but rather internalizing it and allowing it to impact your daily life. This is exactly why Hebrews 2:1 is so relevant because we too quickly the powerful words we heard on Sunday. This is a scary mirror of Jesus’ Sower Parable where some received the word with gladness only to have it snatched from them later.
I illustrated this fact by asking how many remembered the preaching from the previous Sunday and while there were some who knew I still received many blank stares.
It is very clear that our devotion time needs to be focused retention and with that I proposed a radical new idea to the church. I do understand that there are people who have systems that work really well but there are many who need this.
- Abandon your system that does not work – Many have a bible reading plan that focuses on reading large chunks of scripture. While this is noble it fails at the basic goal of impacting retention.
- Take notes of the week’s message/sermon – Record the title and key scripture(s) at a minimum. While more detailed notes might be helpful it really is not necessary for this plan
- In your devotion time read over the scripture(s) from the sermon.
- Think about the words you read and and the sermon. This is biblical meditation. Psalm 1:2
- Repeat for the week.
I’m pretty sure that if you stick to this plan you will really internalize and soak up the word.
By the way, you can listen to the sermon here.
