GM. This is Jesus By Heart. The newsletter that helps you memorize the Bible and find wonderful Christian art for your home.
✝️ Luke 11:28 · Day 3 of 5.
Here is how this works. Each week we learn one thing Jesus said, by heart.
You see the same words every day, Monday to Friday.
Each day a few more words go missing, so you fill them in yourself.
By Friday you can say the whole thing from memory.
You'll also find this week's art piece below.
📖 MEMORIZE
_______ ______ are those who ____ the ____ of ___ and ____ it!
Luke 11:28 / ESV / Half gone now. Try it before you peek.
🎨 THIS WEEK'S MYSTERY DISCOUNT: Madonna Of Quiet Grace I
The piece keeps Mary plain and quiet. No throne, no gold doing the work. Just a woman who heard God and held on. That was the point.
Mystery Discount on this piece. Use code MARIA0525 at checkout.
💡 CONTEXT / 3 OF 5 — The Words
Pay attention to one word. The word is 'keep.'
'Hear the word of God and keep it.' To us, 'keep' can sound small. Keep a receipt. Keep something in a drawer. But in that world the word was strong. To keep something meant to guard it, to hold onto it, to watch over it, to obey it. You kept a command the way a soldier keeps a post. You kept a treasure the way you would guard gold.
So hearing is only half of it. Plenty of people heard Jesus. The blessed ones, he says, are the ones who hear and then keep. They take the word and live by it.
Here is the thing. That is the exact word Luke uses for Mary. Twice he tells us she treasured and kept what she saw and heard, turning it over in her heart, even when she did not understand it yet. When the shepherds came, she kept it. When she found her boy in the temple, she kept it.
So look at what Jesus is really doing. The woman blessed Mary for nursing him. Jesus blesses Mary for something she did her whole life. She heard God's word and kept it, guarded it, lived it. Her body carried him into the world for a few years. Her faith held onto God for a lifetime. One of those is a higher blessing, and Jesus just named it.
✅ THE ANSWER
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!
Luke 11:28 / ESV
🙏 PRAY THIS
Jesus, your mother kept your words in her heart long before she understood them. Give some of us that same patience, to hold onto what you say even when we cannot see where it leads. Amen.
That's it for today! See you tomorrow.
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