Perspective

Perspective

by Emilie Barnes (Drawn from More Faith in My Day)

A DEEPER WALK OF FAITH

One of the conditions for safe, enjoyable boating is to make sure that the water is deep enough. If the water is too shallow, a person runs the risk of running aground and breaking out the bottom of their boat. Similarly, spiritual shallowness is not a good condition for any woman’s personal life!

How can you develop a deep walk with the Lord—one that protects you from the shallowness of life? In Proverbs 2:1–9, we find these four provisions that help a person “walk with depth”:

Saturate Your Life with the Word. Respond to the Word of God and know it inside and out. Have faith in God’s inspiration of Scripture (2Ti 3:16). If you doubt inspiration, you will doubt verse after verse, and the Bible will hold no constants for you.

Desire God’s Word. Be open to what God is saying to you, and begin to desire what he has for you: “turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding” (v. 2). Make reading God’s Word a daily habit. Make it a priority.

People do what they want to do. All of us make choices and when we don’t make time for God in our day, when we don’t make time for the most important relationship in our life, when we don’t make time to read his words to us, we are probably not making the best choices. Choose to do what is important, not only what is urgent.

The more you know of God’s Word, the more you will fall in love with God’s words and seek to live by them . . . 

Develop a Prayer Life. Prayer is the way you really get to know who God is. It is a time when God can speak to your heart. Proverbs 2:3 challenges us to “call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding.” As a part of your prayer time each day:

• PRAISE God for who he is, the Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe who is interested in each of us who are in his family (Ps 150, Mt 10:30).

• THANK God for all he has done for you . . . for all he is doing for you . . . and for all that he will do for you in the future (Php 4:6).

• CONFESS your sins. Tell God about the things you have done and said and thought for which you are sorry. He tells us in 1 John 1:9 that he is “faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.”

• PRAY for your family . . . and for friends or neighbors who have needs, physical or spiritual. Ask God to work in the heart of someone you hope will come to know Jesus as Savior. Pray for your government officials, for your minister and church officers, for missionaries and other Christian servants (Php 2:4).

• PRAY, too, for yourself. Ask for guidance for the day ahead. Ask God to help you do his will . . . and ask him to arrange opportunities to serve him throughout the day (Php 4:6).

Be Consistent in Your Walk. Prospectors often spend years searching for gold or silver. They are persistent and consistent. Make that your approach to God’s Word. There are no overnight miracles when it comes to overcoming the shallowness of life. The race of life is not a sprint, but a marathon.

If a woman will abide by these four principles, she will learn “the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God” (v. 5). That is a high-tide mark! Your boat will not run aground in shallow spiritual waters if you truly know and have a deep reverential awe of God.