Dwelling Richly

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16

Now there’s an idea to chew on. The word of Christ dwelling in me richly. How does that work?

First of all, the word of Christ is a gift we have. God has spoken. We can listen. Let’s not take that lightly. The Creator and Sustainer of life has revealed Himself to His creation. The God of all the earth has spoken to us. Wow!

Further, this word is of Christ. The Christ in Whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:19). He is what God has communicated. The One who is ALL, so richly described in Colossians 1. The One who is our Redeemer and made it possible for the word to dwell in any of us.

The word dwells in us. If we are in Christ and He in us, this is not something we occasionally glimpse. The word should be a real part of who we are. We feed on this word. We live by this word. We depend on this word — and not at a distance.

The word may dwell richly. That’s such a luxurious word. Do we have the word of Christ that way? Does it ooze from every pore into every part of our lives and actions? Are we fully engaged with the treasure?

What if we think of it this way?

You see the chocolate cake.
You smell the warm chocolate.
You know from experience how good it will taste.
It’s right there for the taking.

Have you picked up the fork and taken a bite? Did you savor that bite? Did you accept the whole bite with thankfulness? Was it a rich experience or just a hurried snatch? Is the cake now part of you or something you’ll get to when you have time…someday…maybe?

Most of us can start drooling at the thought of certain foods, but do we crave and engage with the word of Christ the same way?

Priorities Reminder

Haggai is a short book (2 chapters) of the Bible that we don’t often reference, so it may surprise you to see a lesson there on priorities.

The prophet Haggai was used by God to speak to His people recently returned from exile in Babylon. They had come back to a ruined country. Houses, walls — everything needed to be rebuilt. There was a lot to do.

Right away, the first message in Haggai 1 speaks to the choices the Israelites made as they worked to rebuild everything. They had been busy making their homes beautiful and ignoring the temple until a better time. As a result, God urged them, “Consider your ways.”

Sound familiar?

“…seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

A Good Time
Everyone was waiting for a better time. How often do we think now is “just not a good time” for what we know is good and right? We know we should, but…someday.

While we need to be wise about seasons, we also need to be careful not to use that excuse over and over. If we do, we may be ignoring our priorities and walking in disobedience. We say something is important, but it’s not showing in our actions. How often is it never a good time?

Consider
Take time to think about what is truly important and what is important for you in your life. The thinking time is an investment in the kingdom of God. It is worth it!

Choices
There are many good things, many good works, many possibilities for where we work and invest time or effort. But they must be ranked. If we don’t put first things first — make a choice day after day — we will not be doing what is best. It doesn’t just happen; we have to make it happen.