How to Choose Christ DailySample

Safeguard #1: The Word

Why is the Word of God so important?

There is a hill that I will die on, which I will mention as the first step to not turning our backs on Christ—it’s that the Word of God is the ultimate authority. The Word of God supersedes my opinions, experiences, emotions, and thoughts about various situations because the Word is Jesus (John 1). The Word of God is the boundary line that keeps me from entering dangerous areas where I am susceptible to the devil’s attacks on my mind and heart. The Word is a guiding light, a lamp unto my feet, preventing me from falling into holes I cannot escape (Ps. 119:105). The Word of God is a sword, enabling me to fight when my faith is under attack.

How is reading the Word of God connected to maintaining our faith?

A key factor I have seen among those who leave the faith is that one of the first things they stop doing is reading the Word. Posts on social media or music become their truth. Conversations with friends become their truth. And the Word of God takes a back seat as they let others take the wheel of their faith, driving them to places they never imagined they would go. No, when I talk about reading the Word, I am not referring to just religiously reading the Bible to say you did it. I am talking about consuming the Word and letting it wash your soul. I am talking about allowing the very words of Jesus to be seen not as a historical text but as a direct letter to you.

Time and again, I have seen that when the Bible becomes decoration on your table, your faith becomes the same. The Bible is God’s conversation with you; it’s a way He speaks and guides. In the greatest temptation Jesus ever faced, He knew that the only thing that would withstand His testing was the Word.

But don’t forget that Satan also knows the Word. He knows it because he is bound to it. It is also his boundary line that he cannot cross. The Bible says no temptation has seized you except what is common to man, and God is just and will always provide a way out (1 Cor. 10:13). I believe the way out is the Word. As Satan twisted the Bible to tempt Jesus to step outside God’s boundary, Jesus knew the Word. In Jesus’ vulnerable state, where not even a piece of bread had touched His lips in forty days, the Word was what filled His belly.

Don’t let the Word become something easily forfeited on the altar of offense, anger, or hypocrisy. It’s easy to blame the Word when we see someone who claims to know the Word mistreat us in a way that the Word would never condone. But you must know something about the Bible—it stands true and alone as a book with one author and millions of readers. Just because someone reads the book doesn’t mean the book has read them. There are also situations where you might know churches or individuals who have used the Word to justify a wrong action. Again, I will say this: Reading the Word should ultimately lead you to knowing the author. People who read and misuse the Word are not the same as those who’ve gotten to know the author.