Right now I have one breakfast food: oatmeal and almond butter. This is pretty much what I eat every morning\u2014or at least, every morning where I have time between waking up and making the two-minute trek to work from my room.<\/p>\n
To be sure, it can get a little boring. Of course, I would rather have pastries with my morning coffee. But I know that not only will the oatmeal give me the energy I need for the next few hours of work, both my body and my bank account will be healthier in the long run.<\/p>\n
Like the oatmeal, daily Bible reading can get boring\u2014and hard to make time for. You might even wonder, Is it really necessary to read the Bible every single day?<\/em> It\u2019s not like you\u2019re going to remember every one of those devotional times. Some days are more striking than others, but mostly they go by one after another, blending together into a kind of blur. Sometimes it\u2019s tempting to skip the daily practice of Bible reading in favor of something that seems like it will create a more vivid or powerful experience.<\/p>\n However, sanctification doesn\u2019t generally happen in leaps and bounds. It\u2019s a constant, daily and hourly process of God working in us, and one of the biggest ways he works is through his word. We can\u2019t always tell that it\u2019s happening\u2014sometimes our Bible reading seems boring or pointless or even fruitless. But God\u2019s word does not fail in its purpose (Isa. 55:11). He is working in and through that daily, faithful, consistent discipline. Like eating oatmeal instead of pastries for breakfast, it will have powerful effect in the long term\u2014even if it\u2019s hard to see in the moment.<\/p>\n The daily practice of reading and studying God\u2019s word is also a means of obedience to God. Scripture is replete with commands and exhortations to meditate on God\u2019s word at all times (Deut. 6:6-9;\u00a0Ps. 119:15-16). Daily Bible reading is one simple, obvious means to this end. Where Scripture memory engrains a few verses into your mind and heart, and in-depth Bible study dives deep into a text, Bible reading allows you to move through entire books more quickly and see the bigger picture of God\u2019s character and his plan of redemption.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a caveat here: it\u2019s all too easy to get tied up in the forms of a discipline and forget its purpose. Reading the Bible for thirty minutes (or even an hour) every day does not save us. In itself, it\u2019s not even what sanctifies us\u2014that takes the Spirit applying the truths we read to our hearts. A form, such as daily Bible reading, is helpful and important. However, our focus is not to be on the act of Bible reading, but on the God we\u2019re reading about.<\/p>\n There will be seasons in our lives where we are unable to read the Bible every day. Maybe it\u2019s due to sickness or emergency, or it might be merely a (God-ordained and necessary) busy season where there is literally no time to read the Bible. When these times come, we have to recognize them as God\u2019s providence\u2014that he hasn\u2019t allowed us to partake in this practice right now. It\u2019s not an occasion for guilt, but for clinging more closely to him. Meditating on his word is going to look different during this season\u2014maybe it looks like stealing five minutes between classes to memorize a verse of a psalm or listening to an audio Bible in the car.<\/p>\n May these times only strengthen our dependence on God and out desire for his word, and when we are again able to read it every day, may that discipline be all the sweeter.<\/p>\n Our motivation for reading the Bible should be a desire for God and his word. However, the beauty (and difficulty) of daily Bible reading is that we do it even when the desire isn\u2019t there, trusting that God will provide it. What\u2019s more, even when the desire is there, the world and the devil and our own sin nature will conspire to keep us from it, whether through lack of sleep, smartphones, or sudden crises.<\/p>\n Thus the necessity for some common sense in forming and keeping this habit\u2014some spiritual strategy, if you will.<\/p>\n Sanctification doesn\u2019t generally happen in leaps and bounds. It\u2019s a constant, daily and hourly process of God working in us.<\/p>\n I\u2019m well aware of the irony in my writing this article at this moment (I suppose God has a sense of humor, or maybe it\u2019s just conviction). The last few months have seen me at perhaps my least consistent when it comes to the discipline of Bible reading. Most of these strategies, then, are those I\u2019ve learned the hard way\u2014and find myself needing to re-implement again now.<\/p>\n Find a time.<\/strong> If I don\u2019t make Bible reading a part of my daily routine, it just doesn\u2019t happen. I have to tie it to some concrete part of my schedule, something that is (God-willing) always going to happen, like waking up in the morning or eating dinner.<\/p>\n The important thing is to find a time you know will work\u2014and that time may change from one season to the next. During some semesters I\u2019ve been able to get up early and do it before breakfast. But eventually, I get to the point where sleep is the all-important thing and I never get up more than fifteen minutes before I need to be somewhere. At that point, after dinner is the best option.<\/p>\n Phones off (or on Do Not Disturb)<\/strong>. My phone is usually the biggest culprit for time-wasting. I usually can\u2019t turn it all the way off (or leave it in my room, if I\u2019m using the school prayer chapel) due to practical reasons. However, I can leave it in my backpack and put it on the Do Not Disturb setting.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re worried about missing important calls, you can set some of your contacts as \u201cfavorites,\u201d so their calls can still come through (the internet says this works on both Android and iOS, although I\u2019ve only tried it on the latter).<\/p>\n Find or create accountability.<\/strong> This could look like the traditional accountability partner approach, but it doesn\u2019t have to. If I\u2019ve told my roommate or a close (Christian) friend, \u201cI try to do my devotions after dinner,\u201d then if I go somewhere with them right after dinner, they\u2019ll know I\u2019m going back on my word. Often that\u2019s enough positive peer pressure to keep me accountable.<\/p>\n Similarly, if a friend asks about my plans for the evening, it might be appropriate to say, \u201cWell, first I\u2019m doing my devotions.\u201d It feels odd at first, especially if you\u2019re worried about being thought pharisaical; but if it isn\u2019t done with self-righteous intent, the openness can be helpful in setting boundaries to protect that time of prayer and Bible reading.<\/p>\n The discipline of daily Bible reading is a combination of desire and what my theology professor calls \u201csanctified common sense.\u201d Desire drives us to read the word\u2014and common sense drives us to strategize and form habits that will keep us reading it even when the desire isn\u2019t there. But in all our strategizing and habit-forming, let\u2019s not forget the ultimate reason we read the Bible. It\u2019s not to gain extra favor with God or others, but rather to immerse ourselves in the life-giving words of God. This is where the Spirit works to convict, comfort, and transform us more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Katherine Forster is the author of<\/em>\u00a0Transformed By Truth: Why and How to Study the Bible for Yourself as a Teen.<\/p>\n Content adapted from\u00a0Transformed by Truth<\/em> by Katherine Forster. This article first appeared on\u00a0Crossway.org; used with permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Daily Staple Right now I have one breakfast food: oatmeal and almond butter. This is pretty much what I eat every morning\u2014or at least, every morning where I have time between waking up and making the two-minute trek to work from my room. To be sure, it can get a little boring. Of course, … Continue reading “Help! I Can\u2019t Stay Consistent with My Bible Reading”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Obedience of Meditation<\/h2>\n
Spiritual Strategization<\/h2>\n