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Toni Tompkins

Transformed by the Word





Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

Psalm 119:97



Have you ever wondered how to live a life that is deeply connected to God through Scripture? It has always puzzled me that my faith journey didn’t start with Scripture from the onset. Although my baptism happened at twelve, it wasn’t until my forties that I began reading the Bible. No wonder my faith was still shallow at the age of 42! But shallow faith was no longer working for me. I was looking for something more, but I couldn’t quite name it.


I wanted to be able to love Jesus with the same joy Rev. Coleman conveyed in her sermons. Sis. Smith taught enthusiastically about how God’s Word changed her from the inside out. Sadly, her assurance of Scripture’s power was missing in my life. Unlike others around me, I lacked the conviction that brought change, but change is what I craved. I had no idea how to experience God in ways that would transform me, so I did what seemed most obvious. I became a permanent fixture at Bible study every week.


Life instantly changed as I spent time in God’s Word. My efforts to study the Bible for knowledge morphed into private times of praying with Scripture. I got to know the person of Christ who loved me, and I began to love God in return. My relationship with Jesus grew in depth, energy, and intimacy. The presence of God saturated my prayer times as the Spirit spoke directly to me as the lover of my soul! Secured in God’s love, I began to follow the promptings of the Spirit, who changed me from the inside out. I started experiencing the joy found in Rev. Coleman's preaching and the enthusiasm of Sis. Smith’s teaching.


My unnamed desire for God was satisfied every time I read the Bible, and I became like the psalmist in Psalm 119, who declared, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long!”


The author of Psalm 119 mentions his reverence for Torah – God’s instruction to God’s people – in almost every line of this 176-verse psalm. The psalmist consistently tells of how obedience to God’s instructions has saved him from enemy forces and wrongdoing. It brought him wisdom, insight, and understanding. The joy gained from the transformational power of God’s word is precisely what the psalmist expresses when he declares, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long!”


The psalmist inspires us to consider our attitude and posture towards Scripture. In a time where endless distractions scatter our attention. Psalm 119 dares us to prioritize sitting with God’s Word to discover the joy of meditating on it all day long. It pleads with us to be changed by God’s Spirit, who brings wisdom and instruction. When we do, we are infused with the love and contentment that comes from knowing and experiencing a life filled with God’s presence, the only life worth living.


What role does Scripture play in your relationship with Christ?



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