The Immediate Necessity of Learning the Word

[ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DECEMBER 7, 2009]

Our daily lives are often like a busy intersection, lines of cars passing through in turn. We address issues one after another in a never-ending cycle of sleep, meals, work, housekeeping, family, church, etc., etc. But every once in a while, everything comes to a screeching halt, as the sirens blare, the lights flash, and the unexpected demands our full attention.

What can we do? As diligently as we may labor to prevent such times of anguish and heartache, sooner or later, with little warning, that ambulance will come racing our way. Such a hard fact to realize in this life of death, pain, and sorrow!

But God has not left us without comfort and hope, peace and joy, and grace and mercy. He has left us His Word, and we must know it, read it, live it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it before our faith is tried.

"Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11).

The hour I realized my father's death was final, as we were leaving the hospital, I helplessly wondered, "What do I do now?" I immediately knew the answer because I knew the Word. When his son was very sick, David besought God for the life of his child. He fasted and lay all night upon the earth, and yet the child died.

"Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat" (II Samuel 12:20).

I didn't have time to grab a Bible and search out the answers to all the questions I was having. I needed comfort and hope, and I needed it right then! The comfort of family and friends is sweet and precious, but it's not enough. I needed the Word, and, praise God, it was there to sustain me!

Learn the Word now, and God will be faithful to bring it to your remembrance when you are tested. Jesus spent over three years teaching His disciples many things that they did not understand at the time, but He promised them:

"The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you" (John 14:26).

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not" (Eccesiastes 12:1).