BY GREG CRUM
“Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” I Thessalonians 5:19-21
Here in the fifth chapter of I Thessalonians we are given some short, to-the-point commandments from the Lord. One is to not quench (think of putting a fire out) the Spirit of God. Another is to not despise prophesyings. The third is to determine the proper value of the things we hear and see under the guise of the Spirit’s moving.
These three commandments are interconnected and all speak to giving an appropriate value to the things of the Lord Jesus that we experience in this life. With that said, how can we properly value the words and deeds of God that we see and hear? What does it look like when we don’t properly value the words of the Lord? Know that every hypothetical of this nature presented in the pages of the Bible has a practical application in our lives, so we can see evidence in our lives when we are or aren’t properly valuing God’s Word to us.
Last week we saw that according to Isaiah 43, there are some things God promises to “forget,” and others He promises He never will. We also saw that there are some things that God wants us to remind Him of – things He doesn’t want us to let Him “forget.” Now, we know that technically speaking, God can’t “forget” anything. He’s omniscient, all-knowing, all the time, but there are things that He chooses to forget about us by not holding those things against us, and there are some things that, for our sakes, He wants us to speak back to Him and into this Earth during our lifetimes.
As we mentioned last week, once God’s initial words to man are spoken, they require that we “put” Him “in remembrance” of them in order for them to become effectual in our lives. Once God’s words are spoken, they are to be echoed in our hearts, mind, and mouths until we see them come about. In other words, God has spoken His Word so we can speak His words back to Him, thereby giving them root in our lives.
This brings us back to the thought of properly valuing the Word of God. We won’t speak back to God what we don’t value, right? So, how do we properly value the Word of God? What do we catch ourselves doing when we are appropriately evaluating God’s Words? Well, according to the examples given in Scripture, we are thinking about them often and talking about them much! In Joshua 1:8, we see that those who are mindful of God will meditate on the words of God so that those words can work in and through them and bring them success. Additionally, in Malachi 3:16-17, we read that those that fear God speak about Him to each other often, and because of this, the Lord takes notice!
Friends, those that spend their time thinking and talking about God’s Word demonstrate that they value that Word. You and I both know that what’s in our hearts the most, we speak about the most, whether that be football, fashion or food. We cherish opportunities to discuss those things we are passionate about with others that are like-minded. Why? Because we find value in those subjects under discussion. They do something for us, and it’s a natural extension to think about those things often and communicate to others about them frequently.
Football, fashion, food and fill-in-the-blank are fine topics of discussion among friends, but how much more God’s Word? When we think of and speak of the Word and consequently “remind” God that we are mindful of the precious things He has said to us, we show that we value what God has said to us. We open the door for Him to bring that word to pass in our lives!
(Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple Church in Lovely.)