A SPIRITUAL LIFE HACK
Proverbs 4:20-22 NKJV
20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
Life hacks are those strategies and techniques that help us handle tasks, time, and life better. The Bible is absolutely full of wonderful life hacks from the Creator of life. And the great news about God's life hacks - they are free, but they are not without costs.
Solomon is the author of the Proverbs. God has given him an amazing amount of timeless wisdom that we are still learning from today. This short passage is powerful but requires effort and focus on our part.
We can adapt this passage by making it personal. "My son, or daughter, give attention to my words." We can apply this to our lives by giving our focus to God's Word. There are so many things in this life that call for our attention. Family matters, job and career requirements, and a barrage of media platforms are all vying for our time. God's Word is not crying out for our time and focus. We have to be very intentional about going there. And the other challenge is that God's Word requires more of our energy. To sit and read and think about God's Word is more of a discipline than consuming almost any form of reading or media.
"Incline your ear" is another function of effort and focus. We are not simply reading and moving on. We are reading and thinking and listening to what God is saying in His word and how that applies to our lives. What we focus on and give our attention to has an impact on our lives.
"Do not let them depart from your eyes." We obviously can not take this literally. We all know how dangerous texting and driving can be. Rather, this will have to involve the eyes of our imagination. This is another intentional act of taking God's Word and thinking about how it applies to our everyday life. So when God's Word says that He will never leave us or forsake us, we can boldly say the Lord is my helper. And we can boldly say, "I will not fear what man will do to me" (Hebrews 13:5-6). How does that word apply to us? How can we live confidently knowing we have help? What does life look like when we are not afraid of people and what they think? When we are thinking about these verses, we begin to see ourselves in their light. Many of us have professed our faith in Christ for so long now that we "see" ourselves as saved. We see heaven as our eternal home. We rest much more peacefully because we know our future.
Keeping God's Word in our hearts is connected with our thoughts and our words. In fact, the word thought connection applies in a big way to this passage for today. Controlling our words and thoughts so they are congruent with what God's Word says is the way we keep His word in our hearts. We have too easily allowed negatives to get in our mouths, minds, and hearts, so this becomes a process of reprogramming how we think and talk.
And the benefits are powerful. Life where there was death in the past. When the life of God dawns in our hearts, the things that once held us captive are diminished in their strength. We actually begin to "see" ourselves in a new light, and it's a very good new light. Also, God's Word impacting our hearts works like a medicine to our flesh. The impact of our spirits on our mental and physical health is an area we are still learning about. But I can easily see where God's Word in our focus, in our vision, in our hearts can have a major impact on all our health, including mental health.
God's Word is so powerful and life-giving. It's a spiritual hack that impacts all of our being.