I’ve been reading a great book by Beth Moore called “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things”. It’s not what I expected. I was thinking it was a book about how, as an innocent bystander, to deal with it when godly people do bad things. Rather, it’s about how godly Christians can be seduced by the enemy and led into sin and how we can avoid that happening to us.
She mentions several weaknesses that we may have that can be used of the devil to lead us astray. One of them is having spiritual passion but not enough grounding in God’s word. How true! There seems to be a lot of that in our world today. I got a letter from some missionary friends of ours in the Middle East who told about a new believer who was approached by Mormon missionaries. He was too young in the faith to know the difference. Thankfully, he was quickly informed of what Mormons actually believed and steered in the right direction.
I’ve also seen it in other scenarios where someone is convinced that the Holy Spirit has told them something or led them in a certain direction, but that direction is clearly against Scripture. The last thing I want to do is not give the Holy Spirit credit where credit is due. But the Holy Spirit will never lead us to do something or support something that is contrary to God’s word. Our hearts can easily deceive us and what we think is the Holy Spirit may not be. If the idea doesn’t line up with the Bible, out it goes!
The whole thing has been a wake up call to me to make sure that I am continually grounded in God’s Word. Regardless of how long we’ve been following Jesus, we still need to continually be feasting on God’s Word and staying grounded there.
Not only that, but I need to encourage my kids toward an appropriate balance of spiritual passion and a renewed mind in His Word. We don’t want the scale tipped too far in either direction – either all head knowledge and no passion or all passion without the head knowledge.
How do you best stay grounded in God’s Word? How do you make time in your day to spend with Him? How do you stay balanced between the two extremes?
Amy Lynn Simon 
Amy,
I love a good Bible study, but I also homeschool and find it hard to fit that in my schedule. I do read a chapter of Proverbs in the mornings and pray all day, but that’s about it for now. Occasionally I can do a study at co-op and that helps a lot. Thanks for your reminder to get grounded!
Michelle