Post by Cindy on Jan 15, 2016 12:41:41 GMT -5
Spending time with the Lord in His Word every day is imperative for us. It's every bit as necessary as air to breathe. The problem is that because we are spiritually deficient when we don't do this, we therefore can't see that we're suffocating from lack of His Word; we can't see the consequences of that lack. Trust me though when I tell you that they are there and they are real, and they're not good. How can I be so sure? Simply from personal experience. As the Lord tells us in His Word, God disciplines those He loves and He will discipline us for this. Even aside from that though, is that we won't be as able to defend ourselves from the attacks of our flesh, Satan, and the world, nor will we be prepared for those attacks. There are many negative consequences to not spending time with the Lord in His Word daily, but I don't want to get into those. Instead I want to help those who want to spend time with Him but simply haven't figured out how to do so yet.
Most of us realize that we're to be in His Word daily, and most of us want to, but we often find that we "don't have time", the day runs out before we've had a chance to do all we want to. When that happens often enough, we tend to get frustrated and just give up, especially since we really don't understand just how important it is. Let me give you a few hints that helped me a great deal with this.
First, I'm sure we're all aware that there have been many studies done that show that children do much better when they have a schedule, a routine to follow. They flourish with that schedule and tend to languish without one. The same is just as true for adults. Most of us have a schedule of sorts whether we planned it or not. We tend to get up around the same time, go to work at the same times, eat at the same times, go to bed around the same times etc. Whenever we have a problem with something, like going to sleep for example, one of the things that the professionals tell us is to make ourselves a schedule and go to bed at the same time every night, showing again how much having a schedule helps us. The same is true with having time with the Lord in His Word. We need to have a schedule for it.
Before we can do that though, we have to honestly ask ourselves if we truly want to spend time in His Word every day. Until we have made up our minds that we are going to do this, we won't succeed. Instead we'll simply frustrate ourselves about it. So it's time to make that choice. Are you really prepared to spend time with the Lord in His Word every day? Yes, I could give you literally hundreds of scriptures to show you that's what He wants, and commands us to do, but that's not going to help until we literally make that choice for ourselves. We should do so knowing that Satan, our flesh and the world are going to come against us and do all they can to prevent us from following through with this choice. The only way we can succeed is with the Lord's help, and that means confessing to Him that we haven't been doing this, that we now want to do it, and that we need His help to come up with a schedule and to stick to it. The purpose behind scheduling your time with the Lord, is that it gives you a routine, and a routine, if followed long enough, becomes a habit. What better habit could we possibly have?
The best time of day to do this is in the morning if at all possible. I realize that for some people it simply isn't workable, and that's fine. Ultimately it's between you and the Lord. The reason most bible teachers and pastors recommend doing this in the morning is because it helps us to be ready to face the day. My father was an officer in the service. He always gathered his men together in the morning to tell them the plan for that day, warn them of any possible problems and talk about how they could handle them. When we meet with the Lord in the morning, that's pretty much what He does for us. He speaks to us through His Word showing us what we need to work on that day, what our priority should be and what problems might come up and how to deal with them. Besides that, it puts us in the right frame of mind so that we can more easily hear His voice throughout the day to receive His help and guidance. It makes it more likely that we will view things that day through a biblical worldview instead of the way the world sees things. It sets us up to live like Jesus instead of like the rest of the world.
If morning simply doesn't work for you, you can still have some of that by having a routine of doing little things like greeting the Lord when you wake up, to remind yourself who you belong to, and who you are living for. Another thing you could do would be to choose a scripture to focus on each day during the day whenever you have a minute to keep you in tune with the Lord until you can have that time with Him. If you ask Him, I know He will show you any number of ways to keep Him first in your heart until you can have that time with Him.
When i first began doing this, I still had children living at home as well as some that were grown and on their own. What I had to do in order to be undisturbed during this time was tell them when I was having this time and that I'd appreciate not being disturbed during it. Of course, I had to remind them a number of times, but since it was part of my routine, it soon became part of their routine not to disturb me during that time. I hadn't thought of it then, but it was also a very good example to them and showed them just how serious I was about my relationship with the Lord. Unbeknownst to me, it even became a witness for Him!
So think about your typical day, no matter how crazy it is, and talk to the Lord about when He would like you to have your time with Him. Next, make that time part of your schedule. The next question I'm usually asked is "how long should we spend at this?" Again, that's really between you and the Lord. What we're talking about here is not time to read a book, like you'd read a fiction book, or a school book. It's time to spend with the Lord in His Word, getting to know Him better through His Word and really, getting to know yourself better too. It's a love relationship, not a duty. I seriously doubt if anyone would ask how much time they should spend with their boyfriend every day, obviously, they'd want to spend as much time as possible with him! Sadly, that's often not the way we look at this though, at least not at first.
Let's look at what someone's schedule might look like before adding this time into it: A person who works 60 hours a week, sleeps 57 hours a week, and spends 25 hours a week to accomplish chores and other necessary tasks, has 26 hours of discretionary time per week. This person has 26 hours to waste, watch TV, spend on hobbies, etc. (or over 3 and a half hours a day). If we take time to reflect on that, we can easily see that most of us have plenty of time that we could spend with the Lord instead of doing something else. Especially since many of us work less then 60 hours a week. If we work the average of 40 hours a week instead, that frees up another 20 hours a week for us! If we work at a job on the nightshirt and are allowed to sleep at work, well that too frees up a great deal of time since we've already averaged in a good 8 hours sleep a night in the above scenario. So let's admit that we do have time for this and write it into our schedules, ok?
As for how long, since I know I won't escape that question, I've heard other teachers quote times anywhere from a half hour a day to an hour, and some folks only spend 15 minutes day. It really depends I guess, on why you're doing this. Are you doing it because it's a duty, or are you doing it because you love the Lord and have made Him first in your life? Yes, I know, just about all of us will say we've put Him first in our lives, but many of us don't live it. When we put someone or something first in our lives, it means that that person or thing means more to us then anyone or anything else, and because it or they do, it means we spend more time with it or them then we do with anyone or anything else. If money is first in your life, then you probably spend the majority of your time working, and/or figuring out how you can earn more money, and doing other things to hopefully bring you more money. Your thoughts would constantly and consistently be about money. You wouldn't want to live without lots of money. Everything else would be secondary to you. If a person is first in your life, then you would do everything for that person, and you would spend every minute you possibly could with that person when you didn't have to be doing something for them that they couldn't participate in. Your thoughts would constantly and consistently be about that person. You wouldn't want to live without them. See what I mean? I think we all have to ask ourselves who or what is really first in our lives. If God is not first in your life, but you want Him to be, then one thing we need to do to put Him first is to obviously spend more time with Him and spend more time thinking about Him and His Word.
Lastly, I'm usually then asked, "Ok, then what do I read, where do I start?" I've already posted a number of reading plans in this forum, so I'd suggest that you check some of those out. The purpose behind having a reading plan is similar to that of having a schedule and scheduling your time with the Lord. It gives you a routine, and a routine, if followed long enough, becomes a habit. A reading plan can help you stay focused and keep going, and give you a feeling of accomplishment. Keep in mind however, that if you find that the plan you picked or the one you made is simply too ambitious for you, that it is perfectly alright to change it. If you're plan calls for you to read 3 chapters a day, and you find that you do better reading one or two, then by all means change your plan! Remember, this is not a competition. It's always, and in all ways, between you and the Lord. So talk to Him about it and see what He says. I've followed all kinds of reading plans over the years, and often have had to change them. I remember one day when I got so engrossed by what the Lord was showing me in 3 little verses, that I was shocked to discover that several hours had passed and I was no where near done reading that chapter since I'd only focused on those 3 verses. There was nothing wrong with that. I'd gotten a tremendous amount of learning from the Lord on those 3 little verses during that time, and that's what mattered, not whether or not I'd done what the "plan" said I was supposed to that day. So when I realized how late it was, I thanked the Lord for His teaching, put away my bible, and went on with my day. The next day, I picked up where I left off.
Many times a plan will have the date and then what you're supposed to read that day. If you need to, ignore the date, and just use the plan as a kind of guide as to where you're to read next. So if you don't finish what was scheduled for "Tuesday", then pick up from there on Wednesday. No big deal, as long as you know you're being led by the Lord and learning from Him. That brings up one final thing I'd like to remind you of. The time you're spending in the Bible is not just to read it, it's to literally spend time with Him. So please, don't start reading until you've prayed and asked the Lord to guide you and show you what He wants you to learn that day. I hope this helps answer some of the questions I've been asked over the years.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3–4)
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” (Proverbs 19:2)
Most of us realize that we're to be in His Word daily, and most of us want to, but we often find that we "don't have time", the day runs out before we've had a chance to do all we want to. When that happens often enough, we tend to get frustrated and just give up, especially since we really don't understand just how important it is. Let me give you a few hints that helped me a great deal with this.
First, I'm sure we're all aware that there have been many studies done that show that children do much better when they have a schedule, a routine to follow. They flourish with that schedule and tend to languish without one. The same is just as true for adults. Most of us have a schedule of sorts whether we planned it or not. We tend to get up around the same time, go to work at the same times, eat at the same times, go to bed around the same times etc. Whenever we have a problem with something, like going to sleep for example, one of the things that the professionals tell us is to make ourselves a schedule and go to bed at the same time every night, showing again how much having a schedule helps us. The same is true with having time with the Lord in His Word. We need to have a schedule for it.
Before we can do that though, we have to honestly ask ourselves if we truly want to spend time in His Word every day. Until we have made up our minds that we are going to do this, we won't succeed. Instead we'll simply frustrate ourselves about it. So it's time to make that choice. Are you really prepared to spend time with the Lord in His Word every day? Yes, I could give you literally hundreds of scriptures to show you that's what He wants, and commands us to do, but that's not going to help until we literally make that choice for ourselves. We should do so knowing that Satan, our flesh and the world are going to come against us and do all they can to prevent us from following through with this choice. The only way we can succeed is with the Lord's help, and that means confessing to Him that we haven't been doing this, that we now want to do it, and that we need His help to come up with a schedule and to stick to it. The purpose behind scheduling your time with the Lord, is that it gives you a routine, and a routine, if followed long enough, becomes a habit. What better habit could we possibly have?
The best time of day to do this is in the morning if at all possible. I realize that for some people it simply isn't workable, and that's fine. Ultimately it's between you and the Lord. The reason most bible teachers and pastors recommend doing this in the morning is because it helps us to be ready to face the day. My father was an officer in the service. He always gathered his men together in the morning to tell them the plan for that day, warn them of any possible problems and talk about how they could handle them. When we meet with the Lord in the morning, that's pretty much what He does for us. He speaks to us through His Word showing us what we need to work on that day, what our priority should be and what problems might come up and how to deal with them. Besides that, it puts us in the right frame of mind so that we can more easily hear His voice throughout the day to receive His help and guidance. It makes it more likely that we will view things that day through a biblical worldview instead of the way the world sees things. It sets us up to live like Jesus instead of like the rest of the world.
If morning simply doesn't work for you, you can still have some of that by having a routine of doing little things like greeting the Lord when you wake up, to remind yourself who you belong to, and who you are living for. Another thing you could do would be to choose a scripture to focus on each day during the day whenever you have a minute to keep you in tune with the Lord until you can have that time with Him. If you ask Him, I know He will show you any number of ways to keep Him first in your heart until you can have that time with Him.
When i first began doing this, I still had children living at home as well as some that were grown and on their own. What I had to do in order to be undisturbed during this time was tell them when I was having this time and that I'd appreciate not being disturbed during it. Of course, I had to remind them a number of times, but since it was part of my routine, it soon became part of their routine not to disturb me during that time. I hadn't thought of it then, but it was also a very good example to them and showed them just how serious I was about my relationship with the Lord. Unbeknownst to me, it even became a witness for Him!
So think about your typical day, no matter how crazy it is, and talk to the Lord about when He would like you to have your time with Him. Next, make that time part of your schedule. The next question I'm usually asked is "how long should we spend at this?" Again, that's really between you and the Lord. What we're talking about here is not time to read a book, like you'd read a fiction book, or a school book. It's time to spend with the Lord in His Word, getting to know Him better through His Word and really, getting to know yourself better too. It's a love relationship, not a duty. I seriously doubt if anyone would ask how much time they should spend with their boyfriend every day, obviously, they'd want to spend as much time as possible with him! Sadly, that's often not the way we look at this though, at least not at first.
Let's look at what someone's schedule might look like before adding this time into it: A person who works 60 hours a week, sleeps 57 hours a week, and spends 25 hours a week to accomplish chores and other necessary tasks, has 26 hours of discretionary time per week. This person has 26 hours to waste, watch TV, spend on hobbies, etc. (or over 3 and a half hours a day). If we take time to reflect on that, we can easily see that most of us have plenty of time that we could spend with the Lord instead of doing something else. Especially since many of us work less then 60 hours a week. If we work the average of 40 hours a week instead, that frees up another 20 hours a week for us! If we work at a job on the nightshirt and are allowed to sleep at work, well that too frees up a great deal of time since we've already averaged in a good 8 hours sleep a night in the above scenario. So let's admit that we do have time for this and write it into our schedules, ok?
As for how long, since I know I won't escape that question, I've heard other teachers quote times anywhere from a half hour a day to an hour, and some folks only spend 15 minutes day. It really depends I guess, on why you're doing this. Are you doing it because it's a duty, or are you doing it because you love the Lord and have made Him first in your life? Yes, I know, just about all of us will say we've put Him first in our lives, but many of us don't live it. When we put someone or something first in our lives, it means that that person or thing means more to us then anyone or anything else, and because it or they do, it means we spend more time with it or them then we do with anyone or anything else. If money is first in your life, then you probably spend the majority of your time working, and/or figuring out how you can earn more money, and doing other things to hopefully bring you more money. Your thoughts would constantly and consistently be about money. You wouldn't want to live without lots of money. Everything else would be secondary to you. If a person is first in your life, then you would do everything for that person, and you would spend every minute you possibly could with that person when you didn't have to be doing something for them that they couldn't participate in. Your thoughts would constantly and consistently be about that person. You wouldn't want to live without them. See what I mean? I think we all have to ask ourselves who or what is really first in our lives. If God is not first in your life, but you want Him to be, then one thing we need to do to put Him first is to obviously spend more time with Him and spend more time thinking about Him and His Word.
Lastly, I'm usually then asked, "Ok, then what do I read, where do I start?" I've already posted a number of reading plans in this forum, so I'd suggest that you check some of those out. The purpose behind having a reading plan is similar to that of having a schedule and scheduling your time with the Lord. It gives you a routine, and a routine, if followed long enough, becomes a habit. A reading plan can help you stay focused and keep going, and give you a feeling of accomplishment. Keep in mind however, that if you find that the plan you picked or the one you made is simply too ambitious for you, that it is perfectly alright to change it. If you're plan calls for you to read 3 chapters a day, and you find that you do better reading one or two, then by all means change your plan! Remember, this is not a competition. It's always, and in all ways, between you and the Lord. So talk to Him about it and see what He says. I've followed all kinds of reading plans over the years, and often have had to change them. I remember one day when I got so engrossed by what the Lord was showing me in 3 little verses, that I was shocked to discover that several hours had passed and I was no where near done reading that chapter since I'd only focused on those 3 verses. There was nothing wrong with that. I'd gotten a tremendous amount of learning from the Lord on those 3 little verses during that time, and that's what mattered, not whether or not I'd done what the "plan" said I was supposed to that day. So when I realized how late it was, I thanked the Lord for His teaching, put away my bible, and went on with my day. The next day, I picked up where I left off.
Many times a plan will have the date and then what you're supposed to read that day. If you need to, ignore the date, and just use the plan as a kind of guide as to where you're to read next. So if you don't finish what was scheduled for "Tuesday", then pick up from there on Wednesday. No big deal, as long as you know you're being led by the Lord and learning from Him. That brings up one final thing I'd like to remind you of. The time you're spending in the Bible is not just to read it, it's to literally spend time with Him. So please, don't start reading until you've prayed and asked the Lord to guide you and show you what He wants you to learn that day. I hope this helps answer some of the questions I've been asked over the years.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3–4)
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” (Proverbs 19:2)
!!
