• Do you want to be blessed in this new year?
• Do you want to be strong like a tree rather than weak like fallen leaves in the wind?
• Do you want to bear fruit in your life so that others can be refreshed in your presence?
• Do you want to stay fresh in seasons of dryness when others languish?
• Do you want to prosper in all your efforts to love people?

There is a way! Delight in the Word of God and meditate on it day and night.

This is not a piece of advice that you might read in Ann Landers or Dear Abby. This is the Promise of God:

Blessed is the man who…delights in the law of the Lord,
And on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
That yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
Psalm 1:1-3

There it is:

the promise of being blessed,
the promise of being strong like a tree,
the promise of being fruitful,
the promise of not withering but staying fresh,
the promise of prospering.

And what is the pathway to this incredible flourishing of life? Delight in the Word of God and meditate on it day and night!

Does not your heart yearn for this? If not, pray this prayer with psalmist:

Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain!
Psalm 119:36

O, Bethlehem, take up your Bibles and read, and ponder and memorize every day! I say “memorize” because it is impossible to meditate on God’s word as continually as we should if portions of it are not in our mind. Every day send your roots down by the water of the Word.

Drinking daily,

Pastor John