Step Up: God's Word is Your Sword

“How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers! 

 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. 

 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3 (CSB)

I’ve always felt a very visceral connection to the first chapter of Psalms. I suppose that it is because of my love of God’s Word and my desire, from a very young age, to pursue what is true. Because I want to receive my truth from God’s Word and not what the world tells me, I strive to be intentional in ‘rightly dividing’ the word as I read and meditate on it.  

Considering the events going on all around us in this world today, it is incredibly important to look to the Word to anchor us in truth. There are so many voices weighing in with opinions…even opinions on scripture…that are just taking one-off verses out of context to prove their point. Whether political, spiritual, or secular, these half-truths are flung out into the wide web like weapons designed to plant seeds in our hearts. It is up to us to discern: are these seeds worth planting, or should they be discarded as useless to the true follower of Jesus Christ?

I am weary of memes, even those with Scripture, and clips from longer videos ripped out of context to serve an agenda. Brothers and sisters, please—do your due diligence. Soak yourselves in the Word so that you are prepared for the arrows of the enemy of your soul. Satan loves nothing more than to twist half-truths to bring confusion and chaos into the lives of believers. Go back to the source. Find the full video or article. Consider the source. Use spiritual discernment. And sometimes, simply step away from the lies. It can be overwhelming to process such an onslaught of information.

And I wonder…is it even necessary most of the time? Do we need to walk in the advice of the world, to sit with it, mull it over, and give its lies space in our hearts?  Some are called to confront the lies publicly, but are we all? There is too much talking and too little listening in our world today. 

The deception is not new or recent. This has been going on for ages. The enemy of our soul is a deceiver, a liar! 

We are to …“Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, ESV). 

Peter goes on to tell us to resist and stand firm. Satan—whose very name means adversary—has always opposed God. Having no power against Almighty God, he now wages war against those made in God’s image. Our enemy is not our fellow human beings, but Satan himself. 

So how do we counter his lies? Ephesians 6:10–18 gives us the answer. Paul uses the imagery of a Roman soldier’s armor to describe the way believers must be equipped for spiritual battle.

• The soldier’s tools: belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, sword.

• The Christian’s tools: truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, and the Word of God.(And, as an added gift, prayer!)

  
  

Notice: the first five pieces are for defense. But the sword—the Word of God—is for offense. It is our only weapon to strike against the enemy, to cut through his lies, and to disable his schemes. God’s Word is not just one sword, but an entire armory. Jesus Himself demonstrated this when tempted in the wilderness. He wielded the Word to deflect Satan’s lies and resist temptation. 

As believers, we are given the same weapon Jesus used. But how many of us truly wield what is available in God’s Word? Too often, we try to reason, resist, or endure with empty hands—bringing nothing but a stick to a sword fight—because we have not availed ourselves of His Word. The sword has already been placed in our grasp, yet it does us no good if it remains sheathed.

And so we come full circle, back to Psalm 1. The blessed person is the one who delights in the Lord’s instruction and meditates on it day and night. The Hebrew word for meditate here is hāgāh—to murmur, to speak Scripture aloud to yourself, letting it transform your mind, heart, and soul. This is not the empty meditation of eastern religion, not the emptying of the mind to see what comes. No. This is a bit noisy… contemplating and pondering God’s Word. Talking and letting it roll off the tongue into the mind, dissecting the words until God speaks to you through His Word. Planting His Word into your heart and mind… letting it take root and grow like a well-watered plant.

Psalm 1 is my current Word Walking memory passage. As I walk and softly speak these verses, I am practicing hāgāh, murmuring God’s Word until it sinks deeply into my soul. Step by step, repetition by repetition, the Word is reshaping me.

In this rhythm of walking and meditating, I experience what it means to be like the tree planted beside streams of water—rooted, steady, and fruitful in every season.

Blessings,