Last week I talked about what It meant to be a godly father and not just “a good enough father on this earth”. I would like to continue with what God is teaching me as it relates to His family. For about 8 weeks God has been very clear on this message to me that I need to be in his Word daily because that is how he will continue to speak to me and change me. I was always told by my parents who were founding members of the United Methodist Church in Minot, North Dakota, that it was enough to speak to God and to pray to him and ask him for help. But that isn’t what God wants. I never learned the Bible very well because of that and quite honestly much of it confused me. Especially books like Numbers and Deuteronomy. But I never realized that the more you read the Bible, the more that God speaks to you, shapes you, changes your heart, and uses you to change others like never before. But that’s not even the best part! I call my daily time with the Lord my “Stading 6” time because its when I get equipped to pray for and defend my family against the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm” (Ephesians 6:12).
What is the Living word?
In John 20:30-31 God tells us that reading his Bible daily is “the living word”. And I promise you this; if you learn to discipline yourself enough to read the Bible every single day, God will speak to you and bless you in ways that He never has before. I always struggled trying to stay motivated to read the Bible and what I realized that I needed to do was one of my church mentors showed me the easiest way to tap into the living word. He said wake up at 5 AM in the morning because if you are a believer, typically God has made me restless after 330 AM anyways for a variety reasons . That is always been true in my life because after that time in the morning I always seem to be very restless. I’ve been setting an alarm to get up at 5 AM and the first thing I do is read 5 psalms and at least one proverb. Then I read three or four chapters out of one of the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. No matter what the past issue I just went through or what current issues I have, I am able to find purpose and know what to pray for when I read the bible. When I miss the bible reading in the AM, the focus of the day is less direct, and I struggle to fight off the temptations of the world. If you have been praying for things to happen for a long time and they aren’t, I would ask yourself, are you in the word daily?
What Tools Are There to Help?
As I said above, I have always been bad about reading because it always seemed to be the most boring thing that I could ever do with all the fun things we have in life now days, but also the busy schedule I had. I never made time for it like I should have. I wanted to share with you some practical tools that can help you get started having a relationship with God daily through His living word.
First, I recommend that you find a mentor or elder that is already reading daily and ask him or her to send you a verse that pops out to them or made them think of you. This is key because they can also be an accountability partner and keep you honest. It takes 21 days to make a habit so you need that person to help keep you going and res assured that the verses they will send you will hit you right between the eyes. Mine always did.
Second, read 2-5 psalms daily. Begin at the beginning and read them all eventually. After the Psalm, read a proverb. if today is the 20th of the months, begin at Proverbs 20 and read all verses in 20. Then, begin reading a Gospel. I began in Matthew and it was so awesome because I was also more familiar with Mark, Luke and John. It was good to see Matthews more eccentric take on the same events. I guarantee not only will the bible speak to you, but after time God will talk to you as well in your quiet time.
Lastly, there are tools like the one year bible that has you read old testament, new testament, and a psalm daily and if you read 365 days straight you will read the entire bible cover to cover in one year. I used to also try the Bible on audio where someone else reads it but I always got distracted and could never feel God the way I wanted or needed. I recommend options 1 and 2 above and God will do the rest.
In summary once you have accepted God as your savior, you will crave and need His word in your daily life. And when you do, You will then be ready for the Armor of the Lord to fight your battles for you! more to come on that next week! Remember this Easter week that “God demonstrates his love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Roman 5:8
