Welcoming the Word of God makes our hearts burn
My brothers, I ask God to instill in our hearts a deep love for His Word.
If your life, my brother, is not supported by the Word of God, you run the serious risk of making mistakes in your faith. Allow this Word to bear fruit in your life. Let Holy Scripture be your friend, your walking companion.
The Word of God needs to enter our interior like a seed and, in this way, produce fruit within us. However, for this to happen, the Lord’s teachings must be planted in our being. What has not been planted cannot flourish. For the Word of God to bear fruit in us, it must first be planted, sown within us.
Therefore, in this month of September, the month of the Bible, let us ask the Lord for this grace: to be men and women deeply in love with the Word of God.
Let’s read what Psalm 119, verses 103 to 105, brings us: “How sweet your promises are to my taste: more than honey to my mouth. From your precepts I receive intelligence, which is why I hate every false path. Your word is a lamp for my steps and a light on my path.”
The psalmist thought of the Word of God as something sweet, sweeter than honey. Why? Because he felt pleasure in being with the Word, in meditating on it. Here we touch on the effects of this intimate and deep contact that the psalmist had with the Holy Scriptures. He was enlightened by the Word and did not tolerate any false path, that is, any form of injustice.
Unfortunately, many people are leaving aside the Word of the Lord. And, therefore, they end up walking in the midst of darkness, because divine teachings are lights that illuminate our lives.
My experience with the Word of God
Guys, the Word of God has already directed and changed the direction of my life several times. I remember that I was at the beginning of my Christian journey, in my prayer group, in the city of Lorena (SP), when, in a moment of prayer, the Lord gave me Psalm 37:4: “Place your delights in the Lord and He will give you what your heart asks for.” From that biblical verse, my life changed course! From then on, I made a firm decision to give myself entirely to the Lord.
And God ended up leading me to . I did the vocational meetings. I was already graduating in chemical engineering, but God’s call was stronger. See: one Word changed my life! Today, being at is the fruit of this Word that has illuminated and continues to illuminate my steps.
When I was already in the Community, I discerned whether I was going to get married or not. Then I prayed with the Bible, more specifically with the book of Tobias. And then the Lord put Wellington in my path. We dated, we got engaged… And how interesting: when we got married, the Liturgy of the Mass – on our wedding day – was exactly a biblical passage from the book of Tobias.
And both in the past and today, I have experienced this Word that accompanies and guides me. Today, I have a beautiful experience with God’s love and care through his Word. I have been living a strong time of restoration.
Sacred Scripture makes our hearts burn
In the Gospel, according to Luke 24,13-35, we have the biblical passage about the meeting of the Resurrected One with the disciples of Emmaus:
“That same day, two disciples were walking to a village called Emmaus, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem. They were talking to each other about everything that had happened. While they were talking and discussing among themselves, the same Jesus approached them and walked with them. But their eyes were as if blindfolded and they did not recognize him. He then asked them: “What are you talking about on the way, and why are you sad?” One of them, called Cleopas, answered him: “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened in it these days?” He asked them: “What happened?” They said: “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth… he was a prophet mighty in deed and word, before God and all the people. Our high priests and our magistrates handed him over to be sentenced to death and crucified him. We hoped that he would be the one to restore Israel and now, on top of all this, today is the third day that these things have happened. It is true that some women among us alarmed us. They went to the tomb before sunrise; and, having not found his body, they returned, saying that they had seen a vision of angels, who assured him that he was alive. Some of our people went to the tomb and found him just as the women had said, but they did not see him himself.” Jesus said to them: “O you unintelligent people! How slow of heart you are to believe in everything that the prophets announced! Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and thus enter into his glory?” And starting with Moses, going through all the prophets, he explained to them what was said about him in all the Scriptures. They approached the village where they were going and he made as if he wanted to pass on. But they forced him to stop: “Stay with us, it’s already late and the day is drawing to a close.” He then entered with them. It happened that, as they sat together at the table, he took bread, blessed it, broke it and served it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him… but he disappeared. Then they said to each other: “Didn’t our hearts burn when he spoke to us along the way and explained the Scriptures to us?” They got up at the same time and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them gathered together. Everyone said: “The Lord has truly risen and appeared to Simon.” They, for their part, told what had happened to them on the way and how they had recognized him when they broke the bread.”
See Jesus’ pedagogy with those disciples: the Lord explains step by step what the passages of the Holy Scriptures said about Him. And what was the effect of this on the hearts of those men? The heart burned!
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My brothers, hearing and welcoming the Word of God makes our hearts burn. Therefore, there is no point in leaving the Bible open to Psalm 90 and leaving it “creating dust” without making use of it. You need to open your Bible, meditate and pray with the Word of God! Only then will your heart burn.
And be careful: if you follow a certain sermon and the preacher does not use the Word of God, be suspicious. It is necessary to understand whether the person who is preaching, in fact, has his preaching based on Holy Scripture. Even more: if the life of this person who is preaching is really a life consistent with what the Word of God teaches.
It is the Word of the Lord that takes us out of this spiritual blindness, this lethargy and lack of conversion. Therefore, ask in faith: “I want my life, Lord, to be directed by His Word. Amen”.
Transcription and adaptation:
Alexandre Oliveira
A member of the Community since 1997, Alexandre is from the city of Santos (SP). Married, he is the father of two children. The missionary is also a preacher, presenter and content producer on the ‘Formação’ channel on Portal .