Embedded Truth

I was encouraged by this excerpt from "His Word, Your Words" in my Bible Reading Journal by the Navigators:

"Consider how often we pick up ideas from those we spend time with - perhaps even their accent or odd laugh. Similarly, when we hear God speak to us in Scripture, the words and ideas percolate in our minds until we think they're our ideas. God rubs off on us, so to speak. We set out only to interact with God and enjoy God's presence, but we find to our surprise that we have soaked up the mind of Christ.

Authors Glandion Carney and William Long had this process in mind when they wrote about the purpose and place of Scripture in our lives:

'The heart of ethical mastery of the Scripture is to allow Scripture to move us. It is when Scripture becomes so deeply embedded in our lives that it need not be "drawn out" and "thought about" to have an influence. It becomes part of our very soul. It shapes us. Its very contours become the contours of our thoughts, words, and hopes. This is beyond the stage where Scripture is used to extract comforting verses or even "principles of living." Scripture becomes our most engaging conversation partner.'

When the Scriptures saturate our souls, we are more likely to act on them. This is different from articulating correct doctrine or professing profound ideas. Instead, truth becomes so deeply embedded in how we think and act that to act apart from it sounds ridiculous."

May the Scriptures so saturate your soul and mine that to think and act apart from it sounds ridiculous.