Searing God’s Word Into My Heart
By Jessica Brodie
If you asked “teenager me” what I wanted to be when I grew up, you’d get one answer: Actress. I loved everything about the theater—running lines, blocking, rehearsals, costume fittings, set design, cast parties, you name it.
At home I’d pore over my scripts until I knew every line as if I’d written it, not only my own lines but the other cast members’, too. By opening night, it felt like I’d become my character. I carried myself like she would, walked and talked like she would, even found myself dreaming her dreams at night. When I strode onstage and opened my mouth, her words would roll off my tongue naturally. I didn’t even have to think about it—by then, it was habit.
But it wasn’t always that way with me and my Bible. For many years after I recommitted my life to Christ and owned my identity as a Christian, I never cracked open God’s holy word. I figured I got what I needed in songs on the radio or sermons at church. Reading the Bible didn’t make me a Christian any more than going to church did, I told myself. Real Christianity was about my faith and my actions. I didn’t “need” to read the Bible. (Besides, I thought the language was archaic and kind of, well, boring.)
Then God nudged me to start reading the Bible—here and there at first, and eventually daily. Now I never skip a day. What had once seemed “boring” now feels like oxygen, necessary to life. At times when talking to someone, verses or biblical wisdom will roll off my tongue as naturally as the lines in scripts I used to memorize back in my teen years. It’s as if God’s word has taken over, become part of my identity. It’s rooted in me, and I within it.
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In the Book of Joshua, Moses had just died after leading the people out of Egypt and then for the past 40 years in the wilderness. God had selected Joshua to lead God’s people into the Promised Land. Joshua had what he needed to perform the task, with God at the helm and God’s official instructions, left to him in a scroll by Moses. Still, he was probably nervous about the job—would he fail? Was he up to the job?
God told Joshua not to worry, just to be brave and strong and, most importantly, to follow precisely the directions he’d been given, adding, “Never stop speaking about this Instruction scroll. Recite it day and night so you can carefully obey everything written in it. Then you will accomplish your objectives and you will succeed” (Joshua 1:8 CEB).
Thinking about Joshua, told to recite his instructions day and night, reminds me of the lines I’d labor over as a teen. Back then, I’d recite my character’s lines over and over until they were second-nature. If I got stage fright, I didn’t have to worry—all those long weeks of reciting just took over, no problem.
The Bible, of course, is even better than a play. It’s God’s Holy Word, infused with the Holy Spirit, both timeless and universal. Every answer to every question is contained within the Bible, along with advice, support, encouragement, and the hard truths I need to hear (even when I don’t want to!).
When we read the Bible, it’s like we’re tucking a hearty piece of God deep within our hearts. When we recite it, know it, own it, it begins to transform us, and then look out, world. God is on the move!
Some days, you might not want to pick up the Bible. Some days you might not understand it, or wonder why it’s even in there in the first place.
But trust God. Obey Him. Read God’s Word and, even better, recite it until you know it like you’re part of it.
And then step back and watch Him soar… through you.
