Colossians 3:16

Time for another fantastic GROW Tuesday! I added my GROW graphic late this time around, just yesterday. I have to admit: I am very disorganized this week. I usually write out my posts the weekend before the week starts, but I didn't get a chance to do that this time. I had a busy, albeit fun, weekend full of family, food, and friends. So I am BEHIND! It is why I am writing and posting this post so late. I also probably won't be able to read the other great blogs until tonight or tomorrow. Maybe as a result this will be a short post?? :DD

Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." 

First, I got hung up on the words 'dwell' and 'richly'. What does it mean to dwell richly?? Dwell means to 'retain for a time' 'to keep attention directed' or 'to speak or write insistently'. Wow. Already I could add layers of meaning to this verse. But still I continued...

Webster says richly is defined as: -in a rich manner -in full measure or similar to AMPLY: -generous or more than adequate -generously sufficient to satisfy a requirement or need. 

And right there, I found myself inundated with meaning. No need to go further into the verse, I am stuck here. So let's be stuck together.

Zech Translation of Colossians 3:16a "Let the Word of God remain in you, keeping your attention focused, speaking and writing continuously of it until it becomes sufficient to satisfy your God sized hole."  

This small part of Colossians 3:16 feels like a cumulation of 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 John 1:9. First, we learned what scripture was useful for, then we hammered home the importance of learning Scripture, and now I feel we are looking at what to do with the God-breathed Word.

What do we do with it? We remain in it. That means we stay, we park, we don't move from. This is exactly what GROW is all about. One verse a week and we set up camp and we remain. As a group and individually we keep our attention on this verse until God speaks life into us. Goosebumps here folks.

Then we speak and write continuously. When the Word is etched on our hearts, it will overflow out of us, we won't be able to stop speaking and writing about God. We will tell our friends about what we have learned, we will tell Facebook and Twitter, we will gush about God to our families. Then our hands will itch for the pen and fresh, blank page and we will write. We will write our verses back out to God, simultaneously writing them onto our hearts, burying them in our minds. Our relationship with God will GROW (see what I did there?) and our lives will never be the same. Soon our fingers will take the words to our blogs and online journals and the world will glimpse our learning words. Hopefully it inspires, hopefully they are interested and the Living Lord takes root in their hearts as well.

Praise the Wonders of God!!

Before I run off and sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God, I better explain the last thing we can do with 3:16a. We let it become sufficient in our lives. I never liked the word sufficient much. It just doesn't sound strong enough. So forgive me as I use 'more than enough' in place of 'sufficient'. As we write and speak and share and GROW ;) we let the Word have a home in our hearts. And those God shaped holes I touched on last week, are filled. Instead of searching for ...just stuff we search for only God. We begin to realize and see how He is more than enough for our lives, our problems, our joys.

I am beginning to see how the Word is more than enough for my life.

Before I close: I am stressing about life right now. I coach cheerleading and the school season kicks off next week with practices during baby's naptime and football games during baby's bedtime. Hubby works at night and can't watch her for me. I need to keep the job to pay for tickets to my lovely friend's wedding in February. I am not sure what to do, I am not sure how it is all going to work out. I have been stressin', avoidin', bitin' my nails.......but maybe. just maybe. I can let the Word be more than enough in my life. So if you have a moment, a second, would you pray? Would you pray that I can learn to let the Word of God be more than enough in my life? Thank you dear friends :)

Thank you for stopping by friends. I do so hope you join us for the GROW linkup if you haven't yet. Start this week and add your thoughts about Colossians 3:16 to the Facebook group or link up next week with a fresh verse!! See you there!