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Joshua Ch 1 verse 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
What do you expect from reading the Bible or a sermon? Good advice, encouragement, a challenge, clear direction, teaching, rebuke, or something else? Personally, I have read portions of the Bible and heard sermons over many years that have included all of these and more.
One thing that is common to every sermon is that the speaker hopes that there will be a response in the heart and life of the listener. That they will put into practice what they have heard.
This verse from the book of Joshua directs the reader to keep the Book of the Law, which would have been the law of Moses, [which is usually interpreted as the first 5 books of the Bible, and interestingly, this is the first chapter written following on from these books], on their lips. In other words, close by you, that you might meditate upon it day and night, and then be careful to do everything it says.
This is the hope of any preacher that the hearer might ponder what was said, meditate upon it and then act upon it. So next time you read the Bible or listen to a sermon you might like to respond as this verse directs, with the added bonus that prosperity and success will follow.
Dear Lord Jesus, open our hearts to receive your word, to ponder and meditate upon it, and to live out all that it speaks to us of.
Amen
Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash