BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

I've never forgotten that lesson. It still holds true in my life today. When I find myself getting bogged down in the affairs of life and running out of time to get things done, I say to myself, “Gloria, you haven’t been spending time in the Word like you should or you wouldn’t be in this situation.” Then I resolve right then to make a change—to set aside less important things and put the Word first once again in my day. You see, deciding to put the Word first isn’t something you do just one time. It’s a decision you have to make every day. If you’re like most people I know, you’re shaking your head right now, wondering how on earth you can squeeze more time for the Word into your already jampacked schedule. You probably can’t. So don’t wait until you can fit the Word into your schedule. Start building your schedule around the Word. Take authority over your time. Make a commitment to God and say, “I'm going to put Your Word first place in my life. I know if I do that by faith, everything else will fall in line.” If you think that sounds hard, you’re right. At times, it will be. Satan will do his best to stop you from keeping that commitment. He’ll do anything he can to interfere with your time in the Word. That’s no surprise, really. After all, he knows it’s the Word that will make you free from him. He’ll lose his dominion over you if you put it first place in your life. So he’d rather have you do anything other than that! It’s true. He’d rather have you take potato salad to a bereaved widow or work at the church bazaar. He’d rather you book your calendar solid with “good works” than have you open your Bible. How Much Is Enough? “OK,” you say. “I’m determined to spend time in the Word of God every day. But how much time is enough?” Spend as much time as it takes to get the Word inside you in abundance. I can tell you right now, that doesn’t mean just pulling a scripture out of the “Promise Box” once a day. To have abundance means to have more of something than you can see any way to use. When you have the Word of God in abundance, you have more of it inside you than anything else! You’re so full of the Word that when trouble comes the Word is the first thing out of your mouth. To lay hold of that kind of abundance, you need to do what Joshua 1:8 said. You need to “meditate the Word.” To meditate means to fix your mind. So fix your mind on the Word of God every day. Apply it to yourself, personally. Allow the Holy Spirit to make it a reality in your heart. Carefully ponder how the Word you’ve read applies to your life. Ask yourself, “What does this Word from God say to me? What does it mean in my life? How can it change my situation?” Then place yourself in agreement with what God says about you in that Word. Make up your mind that you are who God says you are. You can do what God says you can do. And you can have what He says you can have. Put yourself in agreement with Him, then receive it. A Word to the Wise I’ve been telling people to spend time in the Word for years now. Almost everywhere I preach, no matter what topic I’m talking about, it seems I always get back to the importance of putting the Word first place in your life. You may have heard me say it a hundred times. But you know, hearing it isn’t enough. It’s doing it that will put you over. Jesus taught us that principle in Matthew 7. There He told about two men. Both of them had heard the Word, yet Jesus said one of the men was foolish and the other wise. What made the difference between the two? The wise man acted on what he heard and the foolish man didn’t. 20 : BVOV

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