Finding time to read my Bible is a daily struggle.
For so long I felt like I was doing a disservice to God on days I neglected to spend time in the Word. Guilt would flood my thoughts and I would catch myself wondering if God was mad at me. I didn’t take the time to tick “read my Bible” off of my daily tasks and surely that angered the Lord.
It wasn’t until recently that I began to see the reality of this situation.
My mind was set on the wrong motives. I found myself cracking open my Bible out of a sense of duty and likewise leaving my encounters with God with the mentality of “Well, that’s done for today,” instead of having gleaned a morsel of truth from the experience. I had become so driven by my natural instinct to complete my daily to-dos that I had forgotten the very reason I read my Bible to begin with.
God didn’t provide us with the double-edged sword (the Bible) so that we could make Him happy. He didn’t supply us with his Word to complete anything about Himself. He doesn’t need completing. The real reason we have the Word is so that we can have daily opportunities to grow and learn. So neglecting to read my Bible is more a disservice to myself than it is to God.
The Bible should be something we approach with love every day. As Christians, we make it so easy on ourselves to develop the wrong mentality when we try to justify how reading the Bible just doesn’t fit into our schedule. We gripe and complain that there just aren’t enough hours in the day, but the only person losing when we choose not to read the Bible is ourselves. There’s no “Sorry, God, I’m just too busy today.” He doesn’t need us to continue in His glory, however, he has entrusted us with his valuable wisdom found in the book that we let collect dust on our shelves.
If we can change our view of reading God’s Word we will change our schedules to make time for it. When we drop the sense of duty we’ve attached to Bible Study and allow the wisdom and aid of scripture to permeate our hearts and minds we will find new motivation to set everything aside for the purpose of Christ. Our hearts should long for those moments in His presence. Our lives should feel a sense of desire to plug-in or communicate with God.
Reading the Bible shouldn’t be a daily struggle. When it becomes a game of making God happy it’s time to realign our motivation.
What have you learned or been motivated by lately?
The Ameri Brit Mom
The Ameri Brit Mom 