How many times per week do you read the Word of God? How important do you think reading the Word is?
The Word of God is alive and transforms us. If you want to get to know Him more, read the Bible; you want to understand Him, read the Bible; you want to know His plans, read the Bible; you want to know who you are in Christ, read the Bible. You get the picture.
How many podcasts do you listen to daily? Don’t get me wrong: podcasts are amazing because they help us grow and gain understanding of many topics and different perspectives, but are you putting them first?
If you are, please check if that can be replaced by simply sitting and reading / listening to the Word of God.
How long do you spend doing certain things, like exercise, shopping, checking social media, cooking, eating, cleaning, shower, etc.? can you cut 5 min from each activity and read your Bible? It doesn’t have to be at the beginning of the day or before bed time.
In the mornings, we have so many excuses for not getting up and reading the Word, like it’s too cold, I’m too sleepy, too tired, maybe later, etc. And then you promise yourself you will do it at night, when you have “more time”. But during the day, you do everything else first; all the chores, errands, and everything else that needs to be done. When you are finally finished with everything else, you are too tired to read and you promise yourself that tomorrow you will do it. Before you know it, a day becomes a week, becomes a month. Finally, your only contact with the Bible are the verses mentioned at Sunday Service or the Word of the day.
Every now and then, you will ask yourself how you can hear His voice more, how to feel more recharged, how to go from Glory to Glory, how to increase your faith… Well, as mentioned on day one, you need to die to your flesh and persevere until the day that you can’t go on without reading the Bible daily because it feeds your soul, because you feel weak and heavy and tired when you don’t read it. When you discover that reading the Bible gives you another level of strength in your life, that will keep you going in ways that you’ve never expected before.
It is like everything in life. When you start going to the gym, for example, all your muscles hurt the next day, but over time, it becomes easier if you keep going regularly. Or you may try to stop eating sugar, and at the beginning you find it’s not easy. But when you start noticing you have more energy, feel more active, and your body feels different, it motivates you to keep going. Similarly, it may seem hard at first to find the time, the passion, or the how-to for making time with God, but if you stop all the buts and the questions and the excuses (even if they are real) and find a place to read the word of God throughout the day (regardless of what time or for how long) you will start seeing how He transforms you, and you won’t be able to stop!
And if you don’t know where to start, please ask a friend, ask your pastor, look into internet Bible plans or start reading the New Testament.
Bible Verses
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Psalms 119:105 NIV
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16 -17 ESV
‘But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4 ESV
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 ESV
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Romans 15:4 ESV
“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”
1 Timothy 4:13 ESV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 ESV
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17 ESV