Many years ago, my wife Pam and I were youth leaders and Senior High Sunday School teachers at a small church called Raccoon Ford Christian Fellowship. We had a surprising number of young people for a rural church out in the middle of nowhere. We loved being youth leaders and we loved those kids. We prayed for each one of them by name every night. One year, we went on a 3-day retreat to a Christian Center in Syria, Virginia, and our friend Bradley Stuart led some of the sessions. One session in particular came to mind when I read today's passage, so let's listen to it:

God's word is alive and powerful! It is sharper than any two-edged sword. His word can cut through our spirits and souls…until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts. (Hebrews 4:12 CEV)

As I mentioned, we had a surprising number of kids in the Youth Group. While not everyone attended, we still had about twenty kids and five adults on that retreat. Bradley encouraged each of us to find a passage from the Bible and meditate on it, asking God to show us what He had to say to us that day. The room was quiet as we did what he asked. Discussing it afterwards, we discovered that every person, all of the youth and all of the adults, had learned something from God just for them. In today's passage, we read that God's Word is alive and powerful. It cuts through all of the extraneous thoughts that occupy and distract our minds, getting deep into our hearts, speaking to us, directing us, changing us. When we read and meditate on God's Word we not only learn what He might say to us; we learn things about ourselves that we’ve never seen before.

How about you today? Do you ever set aside any time just to let God's Word speak to you? If you're willing to listen, God has something to say to you...and that is very Good News!