Downloading the Ultimate 'App'

"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge" (Proverbs 22:17)

One thing you must understand about me and computer technology, beloved, is that I am always several jumps behind.  For example, my latest cell phone is a slide-out keyboard texting phone and when did they come out?  So it was a real shock for me when for Christmas my wife surprised me with my own iPad.  Talk about a technological eye-opener!  I cannot tell you how much this computer "old-timer" has enjoyed downloading different 'apps' and just generally playing with my new toy.  Perhaps the greatest advance I have made with it thus far is to learn how to use it in the pulpit for my sermon notes.  A couple of folks asked me early on if I had a new toy since they saw me keep touching the surface of something as I moved through each passage of Scripture.  Needless to day, I am always on the lookout for new apps that I can check out and possibly download for my own use.

Did you know, however, that what we might rightly call "the ultimate app" does not require an iPad or a PC connection of any kind?  In fact, it is every believer's responsibility to "download" this particular application into his or her own life!  And just what is this spiritual app that we all need so much and to which we would do well to give heed?  Note first in this particular proverb collected by King Solomon that the need is for us to "incline your ear and hear" wise words.  And where do we find such wisdom?  In the latter portion of the proverb God Himself through the writer commands us to "apply your mind to my knowledge."  The Hebrew word here translated "apply" is shiyth, pronounced sheeth and meaning literally to "place" in the sense here of setting a thing in its proper place.  The "thing" that is to be so set in place is the knowledge of God's Word and the precise "place" in which it is to be set is the believer's mind.  Very simply, we are to set our minds solidly and continually upon the truths of God's Word and apply those truths to our living by scrupulous obedience!

And did you notice, beloved, that the responsibility for such application of godly wisdom is our own, yours and mind individually?  To put it in "computer-ese," so to speak, the app is available to us but it must be our own choice, an act of our will, to "download" that truth and to make it a part of our lives.  If we do not, then we and only we are to blame for the disastrous attitudes we will hold and for the catastrophic consequences we will endure as a result.

I hope to continue to enjoy my iPad, beloved, and even to download more apps as they become available.  But more than that, my heart's desire is to make sure that God's "ultimate app" is up and running all the time in my life.  Would you like to download it right now?  You won't find it at the app store!  It is no further away than your Bible and your personal yieldedness to the Spirit of God.

Ron