ESOCS Devotional 2 April 2021
TEXT: JAMES 1:19-27
MEMORY VERSE: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21 KJV
Have you experienced the futility of trying to produce spiritual fruit by your own efforts? If you redirect your energies to “engraft” Scripture into your life and meditate on it day and night, God’s Word will successfully bear good fruit in your life. God uses the analogy of engrafting to describe how His Word is to function within a believer’s soul: “…Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). To engraft Scripture means to make it a living extension of your life so that it can produce spiritual fruit in you. For example, if you engraft I Corinthians 13 and continue to meditate on it and practise it, it will produce the fruit of genuine love in your life. If you engraft the Book of I Peter, it will bear the fruit of patience during suffering. If you engraft Romans 6 and 8, you can have victory over sin.
There is value in engrafting every single verse in the Bible, because “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16). There is great benefit in focusing on the verses that contain commands because they express the foundational message of Scripture: how to love God and others. As you memorize and meditate on Christ’s commands, you will demonstrate your love for God, you will be His friend, and you will know His love. Most of all, Christ will reveal Himself to you through these commands. (John 14:21.)
The first step to engrafting God’s Word in your life is to receive the Living Word, Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word of God (John 1: 1, Romans 10:9–10).
One of the first evidences that you are a child of God is a love for Scripture. God compares His Word to the milk that a newborn baby requires: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Pet. 2:2). God also compares His Word to other types of food, thus confirming our need to feed upon it daily (Matthew 6:11 and Matthew 4:4.).
As you read the Bible, God’s Word, it is important to read both extensively and intensively. There is rich reward in reading the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. (Read intensively—carefully and repeatedly—in order to discover Scriptural insights that God wants to reveal to you. Additional insights and applications will continue to emerge as you engraft the Word of God in you.
As you see the need for spiritual fruit in your life, humble yourself before the Lord. He will give you grace to carry out the steps to engraft Scripture.
Read yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
CHALLENGES
What are those things that hinder you from allowing the word of God to be engrafted in your heart? Ask God to deal with them.
PRAYER POINT
Ask the Lord to engraft His word in your heart so that you will know your inheritance in Christ.
FURTHER READING: 1 Peter 2:2-9; 2 Timothy 2:14-26
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ESOCS Devotional 2 April 2021
