One thing I love about reading God’s Word is how the Holy Spirit causes a verse or passage that you’ve read a dozen times to pop out at you, as though you are seeing it for the first time. I recently read Ezra chapter 7, where the Jewish exiles had returned from captivity and rebuilt the temple, and Ezra the priest was sent back to Jerusalem to reestablish proper worship. As Ezra went, the “good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Ezra 7:9b-10 (ESV)

Five things popped out in this passage:

1. Set our hearts. Our hearts are the engines that help us follow God by loving what He loves and hating what He hates, but we have to put that engine in gear. We have to choose and make up our minds to follow God, even when we don’t feel like it.
   
   
2. Use our minds. Ezra read the Bible and listened to the Bible being read and preached. But he also studied it for himself. We should take a verse and think about what it teaches us about God, ourselves and our need for Him in Jesus Christ.
   
   
3. Do it. It’s not enough to plan to follow God or to even study our Bibles, we need to be faithful and obey God. When we let God’s Word speak to us, our conscience will remind us to obey Him.
   
   
4. Share it. At a time like the present, we need to remember each other. Phone a friend. Have a “virtual coffee” together. Tell them what God is teaching you in His Word, how He is asking you to obey Him with your life and ask for help to do it. We were meant to follow God together.
   
   
5. God’s good hand is on us. The Holy Spirit is here with us. Even in this strange and scary time. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will give us strength to follow wherever He leads us. He will guide us and stand with us, side by side, hand on our shoulders. So take courage and set your heart on the LORD.