Ask a Pastor: What are practical steps to make sure I read the Bible daily?

Question

What are practical steps to make sure I read the Bible daily?

Answer

As our body can’t survive without food and drink, neither can our soul. Jesus says in John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Two things are clear. First, Christ’s words can’t abide or stay in us if they don’t first enter into us. In other words, we must read our Bible! Second, when Jesus says ‘ask what you want and it shall be given to you’, He does not give us ‘a blank check’! He knows that when His words abide in us we will learn to ask with Him, “Not my will, but Thy Will be done!”

So, we know we must read God’s Word daily, but how do we move from ‘have to’ to ‘want to’? Often we are so busy and distracted that we don’t get to it, or perhaps just don’t feel like it. However, as it is with most things in life, they require effort. For example, you can’t run and win a race just like that! It requires a lot of strain and sweat, which is not pleasant at the moment, but you keep your eyes on the prize! In a sense it’s like that with doing devotions. Regardless whether you feel like it or not, do it for the ultimate prize, to be not only saved from sin but unto holiness, which is true happiness! You can’t, and won’t, have delight in daily devotions unless and until you commit to its duty.  

How to do that? Consider and commit to these four practical components.

1. Have a set time. Don’t find time to do it. You know how easily it gets squeezed out, not only by the ever present social media, but even by doing legitimate work. Instead make time. Whatever works best for you, though the best time is the morning, when you are well rested. It also is easier than at night or at noon, since you can set your alarm exactly at the time you want to get up and at what time you need to eat and go to work or school. Also, it’s not primarily about much time but at least some time.  

2. Have a set place. So not only when but also where you want to do it. Again, not just find a place but also set a place. A place where you will be least distracted or interrupted. Maybe your bedroom or any other place in your home, on the porch, or, if necessary, in your car. And, if I need to say it, switch off your phone and any other devices, so you can give your undivided attention to your time with the Lord.  

3. Have a set plan. Here too get into a routine, so don’t just let your Bible fall open and think that’s the Lord speaking to you. Not to say that He can’t use it, but you don’t read any other book this way. You begin where God begins. Start with Genesis 1 and Matthew 1. Read a chapter, or half a chapter, or just a few verses of each testament, pause, and meditate on it. Don’t just read God’s Word, but prayerfully search it! It also is very profitable to read a Psalm (or a portion of it), followed by singing one or more Psalters. Then continue the next day where you left off.

4. Have a set purpose. Thank God for giving you His Word, pray that He gives you an ear to hear, that is to listen, to what He says to you, realizing it isn’t just about the people back then, but about you, and to you, today. Doing all this won’t earn you God’s favor, but they are God’s means to obtain it. It’s not just to do our duty, but about spend time with the Lord our God, to confess our sins and place our trust in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to the Father, through His Word, plead the power of the Holy Spirit. Seek to worship the triune God and fellowship with Him. In due time He will give you moments of rest, peace, and joy. As someone put it: ‘You’ll be driving from duty to delight’! 

Driving from Duty to Delight

October 4, 2016 by Eric Raymond

Let’s cut right to it. Sometimes we don’t feel like reading our Bible, praying, going to church or other things that God tells us are good for us to do. It may not be any one thing, for any number of reasons we just don’t want to do it. So what do we do?

Well, we have a choice. It’s a fairly simple choice, but it’s not an easy one.

The choice is whether or not we are going to do what we should do. Are we going to, in spite of our will, open up our Bible and thoughtfully engage with God’s Word? Are we going to be still before God and pray?

The answer to the question is, like most other yes or no questions, pretty straightforward. It’s the underlying reasons for why we answer that are more nuanced.

Let’s consider the “no” answer. I’ve not found one good reason to not pray, read my Bible, or do anything else that God tells me to do. In fact, my experience is just the opposite. Often times it is the doing of the thing that I don’t want to do that actually serves to bring surprising benefits.

This is what I wanted to focus on here. It is a contrast of duty vs. delight. Many people avoid their duty because it is not their delight. After all, let’s be honest, we do what we want to do. And conversely, we don’t do what we don’t want to do. We don’t read our Bible because we don’t want to. We leave off praying because we don’t want to.

Now, let’s think about this for a second. If we will only pray when we want to then we are relying on our feelings and desires to be our spiritual compass. But what do we learn about our hearts in the Bible? They are trouble (Jer. 17:9). They are an untrustworthy compass. Even as Christians our minds and hearts are warped and desperately in need of renewal.

Therefore, I am advocating for doing the right thing—that which God calls us to do—whether we feel like it or not. Here is the thing, the delight, is quite often not at the front of the train. Frequently delight comes several cars back. It is the duty that is more often in the head. It is the car of duty that we see emerging from the covered tunnel. Instead of waiting to feel like doing something Christians should remember what they should be doing and do it. The delight comes through obedience to God’s Word and time in his presence. Delight comes through duty.

There have been so many times that I have wrestled myself down to my knees to pray. In time, my prayers warmed alongside of my heart. Like a chill on a winter morning God heats our cold clothes from within. He brings delight from and through his means. Soon after getting to work, I would find myself encouraged, reminded of countless demonstrations of saving and restraining grace. I would then move ahead to contemplate the gospel and the glorious inheritance that is mine in Christ. Like a faithful lead car, soon my duty has brought in delight. But what would have happened if I simply let my feelings drive? I would have wandered off to fetch a drink from a broken cistern or grabbed another slice of moldy bread. Far from being a spiritual albatross duty is dose of much needed medicine prescribed by the Great Physician.

Don’t be scared off by such rigid words as duty. The Legalism Police will attempt to cite you with some type of holiness violation. But friends, when the duties are ordained means by God, they are blessings filled with the seeds of your delight. We harvest our joy by and through God’s appointed means. You and I just need to take God at his Word and get after it. And I trust that we will find that as we drive from duty we will find our way in delight. And you’ll never guess what comes as a result: your delight drives you back to duty.