Making the Word a Priority

By Mirely Maldonado

“Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.”—Luke 24:44–45 (NKJV)

“I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.”—Psalm 119:15

These days, it seems like there’s so much going on, and so quickly, that it can be hard to keep up with everything. Between staying on track of our day-to-day, keeping up with relationships, and staying up-to-date on local and global news, things can become overwhelming.

And have your ever wondered why things happen the way they happen? Or where God is in all of this, and why He is letting certain things happen?

We struggle with understanding or interpreting all the craziness of the world around us, and rightly so because we’re not all knowing. But our Lord loves us so much that He created a way for us to gain the wisdom and understanding we need to have for the moment. James 1:5 (NKJV) says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” And later in James 3:17 (NKJV) he says, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

There’s no better source to gain wisdom and understanding from than God Himself. “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6 NKJV). And He has given us His Word as a source of wisdom. It’s so amazing how the Bible covers everything we need for our journey through this life!

But sometimes we have a hard time understanding the Bible, which is why today’s passage is key: “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” This verse is talking about Jesus, but in our case we have the Holy Spirit to guide and give us understanding as we read through Scriptures.

Things make more sense, and we get more answers to our questions, as we look at life through a biblical lens. The Lord helps us process things that can be hard for us to deal with or comprehend, and this life becomes more purposeful to live through even with the challenges we face.

Sometimes as believers we say, “I’m just not hearing from God” or “I just don’t know what God wants me to do.” But it’s hard to hear from or understand someone we don’t spend time with. He wants to spend time with us, but He doesn’t force Himself on us. We need to choose to make Him a priority, like we’ve chosen throughout our lives to make other things our priority. Once we start doing that we’ll see that with time we’ll have more peace in moments where there should be turmoil because we start understanding who He is, who we are in Him, and what our purpose is.

What a beautiful opportunity we have every day to choose to grow in this relationship and consequently grow in our resilience for living this life!

Pause: Think about something(s) you do or spend time on every day (or most days) that are not that helpful to your life in the bigger picture.

Practice: Purpose to make space to replace some of those things that are not really helpful in the bigger picture with time reading the Bible. You can start with as little as 10–15 minutes a day. Ask for His Holy Spirit to give you understanding as you read.

Pray: Father, in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I come to You and ask for Your help in making time in Your Word a priority. Please help my understanding as I read through it. I want to get to know You more and also know there’s a bigger and better purpose as I go through this life. Amen.