Far too often we waste our time and energy fighting worthless battles in life. I know I get sidetracked with many things that are not truly important in the light of eternity. But allow me to define one of the most important battles we Christians should fight every single day: the battle to read God's Word.
This spiritual battles may indeed be one of the hardest to fight. But it is vital to our lives as Christians.
At one time in my life I thought I was a bad Christian, because I struggled so hard to get time in God's Word. I thought that perhaps I didn't love God's Word enough, or that I lacked self-control; the enemy worked heavily on my guilt-ridden mind for far too long.
Then I realized something that changed my perspective forever. It will ALWAYS be a battle to get time in God's Word. Why? Because the enemy of our souls works overtime to keep us away from this life-giving, life-sustaining, message from God to His people. The devil doesn't want our minds to be shaped by God's thoughts; he wants to pull us away from God any way he can. The most important thing the devil can do to accomplish his goals is to keep us away from God's Word.
It will always be a battle. So we must fight back. Hard.
Some days it's truly comical to see how hard the devil fights to keep me away from reading the Bible. So many days when I get up to read before the kids awake, one of my precious children will stumble out into the hallway inside the first two minutes of my reading time. Or something in the house will draw my attention as suddenly seeming to be more important than reading. Or I get into a sneezing fit and have to keep getting up to get tissues (it doesn't happen like that any other time of the day).
I don't think any of us would dispute the value of reading God's Word each day. We all know scriptures like 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "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," and Hebrews 4:12, "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." But how do we overcome the barrage of temptations to skip reading the Word?
Speaking from my own experience, I have to employ an element of sheer determination to get time to read my Bible each day. My alarm goes off insanely early, after which I have to fight the desire to snooze "just a few more minutes." But if I don't get up before my children awake, I will lose the best possible time to read my Bible. If they do get up while I am reading, I am trying to train them to wait to ask me things because "I'm listening to God right now."
Then I follow a reading plan. Personally, I have found tremendous value in reading through the Bible each year, so I follow a reading plan I developed for Highland Community Church, with a checklist for each day's Old and New Testament readings. Starting in October I plan to begin a chronological reading of the Bible, my first time doing that. If you want to develop a personalized reading plan and don't know where to begin, I suggest starting with www.bibleyear.com, where you can tailor a reading plan to your Bible version and the way you want to read it in the time frame you desire.
Perhaps you prefer to follow a slower read of the Bible, taking time to read study notes or other aids to help with understanding. Perhaps you follow a devotional guide like Our Daily Bread or another equally valuable tool to help you get into the Word.
No matter when or how we do it, we must fight the battle to get into the Word every day. Pray for God's help in fighting this battle--it's a battle He wants you to win.
Dear brother or sister in Christ, will you join me on the front lines?
No comments:
Post a Comment