Okay it's confession time. I"m going to be blunt for a moment. Daily reading of my bible just hasn't been happening and I don't have an excuse. I check my facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, and email daily. Yes I use all of those.
Now why on earth would I spend countless minutes each day skimming through celebrity posts, email coupons, and cute garden ideas instead of spending time in the Word?
The same reason I eat fast food french fries instead of broccoli. It's tastes delicious, it's easily accessible, and cheap. But I don't think about the harm it causes my body, the cholesterol, the heart disease, the long term expense. And even good things can stop our spiritual growth if they are put in priority over what we truly need. Broccoli may be hard to swallow unless seasoned just right and in the same way sometimes the bible is hard to understand and it pushes me to dig too deep. But does that mean it isn't necessary for my health? Since I"m not touching leafy greens, I'm thinking it is necessary.
"Jesus answered, 'It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'. " Matthew 4:4
Now, I"m going to group us all together from here on out, because you are human too and I can guess in some small way you can relate, if not in daily reading, maybe in prayer time, or in serving others. We all know our physical health is important, but how much more should be be concerned about our spiritual health? And why do we put it aside for such meaningless things? We can be as healthy physically as a marathon runner until the day we die, but if we do not care for our spiritual health our one and only life has been in vain.
"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales, rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4: 7-8
I often think about things as an input/output. For instance, if I hear a catchy song on the radio, it's stuck in my head all day. Now depending on what station you listen to that could be a positive thing or a negative thing for the day. But you are meditating on that song all day, whether you realize it or not. Meditation is simply reflecting on something, mulling it over in your head, and contemplating it. If the words I'm putting in my head are condescending or degrading then sooner or later I'm going to show that outwardly. But if I am thinking of godly righteous things, than that will allow God's truth to shine through me. After all, isn't that what I truly want and pray for my life to be?
So where do we begin, how do we get back on track and find that study time, the growth, the health?
I'm going to work on my input. For me, it's a matter of lack of discipline and distractions. So taking some of the trash I put in and replacing it with reading the Word and prayer time. Maybe for you it's an all or nothing, maybe it's just starting with 10 minutes a day, maybe it is connecting with someone to help you stay on track. Something I do from time to time is put notes on my bathroom mirror so I can think on them throughout the day. So since we're studying Romans I posted some verses and prayers up for the week. What is something you can do to keep distractions out and godly words in?
