8/9 Psalm 119:97

⁹⁷ Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

As you begin to increasingly value the Word of God, your love for it will grow. At first, time in the Word is a discipline. You force yourself to do what you know is good for your spirit. In time, you develop such a love for it that you don't want to go a day without it. The encouragement, comfort and guidance it brings become a daily necessity.

The verses that speak to your heart will remain with you throughout the day. You will talk about them with those you confide in, because you will want to share the Bible's richness. God's words instruct you in having the right attitude about the situations you are facing. They speak to your heart about the steps you should take. They keep you from tripping up in the places you are prone to stumble. That is why you go over them throughout the day.

A few verse later in this psalm (119:105), we are told that the Word is a lamp for our feet. The oil lamps at that time were the equivalent of a candle. You could not see far in front of you, but they did give enough light to keep you from stumbling over something in your path. As we meditate on the Word during our walk through the day, we will see stones in our path that we used to trip over: offenses, temptations, and worthless activities. But if we hurry through our time in the Word and don't take it with us, meditating on what it spoke to our heart, those things will still trip us up because we will not have the light of the Word to expose them.

Consider: Have you grown to love God's Word? Are you taking it with you throughout your day? Increasing love for the Word will result in increased meditation of it during your day.