Hunger or Discipline?
Reading the bible
everyday seems like a daunting, difficult task taking precious time out of our
already busy day. On the surface, it
appears as a discipline we will have to force into our daily routines.
Imagine
this. You wake up in the morning,
shower, brush your teeth, comb your hair, go to work or school, come home, hang
out with friends on the phone, watch TV, prepare for bed, and go to sleep. You do this every day.
There is one
thing you have forgotten, to eat. Your
stomach the first day grumbled trying to say, “feed me”. You didn’t listen, and continued with your
busy day. The second day, you felt a
little weak in the knees and nauseous, but your daily activities took
priority. On this path, it is only a
matter of weeks before your body shuts down from starvation.
The same is true
with our spirit man. In the beginning,
right after you received Christ as your Lord and Savior, excitement fueled your
desire to know more, to read the bible and go to church. I bet it did not take long before
distractions from your daily life began to take priority over reading God’s
Word. After a while, your spirit man
began to starve from lack of spiritual food.
You are not
alone. Let me repeat, “YOU ARE NOT
ALONE.” Many believers find themselves
in this same predicament. The question
is, “what are you going to do about it?”
Your spiritual man in starving.
You want to eat, but how and when?
You cannot add more hours into your day.
Reading God’s
Word is essential to sustain and grow in your spiritual life. Preachers in the pulpit speak of a wonderful,
abundant, happy life in Christ. Yet, our own lives are stagnant, and
complacent. Start by reading the food
God gave us to make our spirit man grow up healthy and strong, His Word.
Much like eating
our vegetables as a child, the reading the Word can seem a bit daunting. With time, we grow to love those vegetables,
at least some of them. Eating vegetables
no longer becomes a chore (a discipline) to eat them, but a joy that we look
forward to each meal. Why? Because as we grow to like our favorite
vegetables, we develop a hunger for them on our plates.
I love asparagus
(when it’s cooked right). As a child I
hated it. My mom, however, loved
asparagus. We had a half-acre garden out
back, and the first two rows in the garden were asparagus, because she loved it
so much. I ate the asparagus because I
was told to eat it. I loved vegetables,
just not asparagus.
After I grew up,
left home, and began to raise my own family, I discovered (without ever
realizing it) that one of my favorite meals over the years became Mesquite
Grilled Salmon with a side of asparagus.
Delicious (at least to me). Now,
while traveling or working overseas, I miss this meal, and it is one of the
first I request when I am in the states.
Reading God’s
Word is a spiritual discipline that requires patience, purpose, and
determination in the beginning. However,
as we age spiritually, we develop a hunger for more of it, regularly, every
day.
“The Daily Read”
is an outline, or a guide to help you develop and grow spiritually, every
day. If you miss a day, do not feel
guilty. Just catch up the next day, or
over the weekend. Each day’s reading
only takes a few minutes.
The remainder of the day, take a moment here
and a moment there, to purposefully think about what you read. Ask yourself questions: What does this passage tell me? How does this passage apply to me and my
family today? What did I find
particularly interesting in it? Was
there something in the passage that I just did not like? Why?
And so on?
This is called
“meditating” and “thinking” on God’s Word.
Meditating is murmuring (or speaking softly God’s Word). Joshua 1:8 tells us that if we do this day
and night (feeding our spirit man regularly) then we set ourselves up for
success and prosperity. Also,
Philippians 4:8,9 says to think on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure,
lovely, and of good repute, these can lead to the God of peace being with you
(paraphrased, I encourage you to read the verses in your favorite translation
of the Bible).
In time as you
do this a hunger develops, a sign of spirit being fed and getting healthy. I encourage you to journal in some form or
fashion about your day’s reading. One
man I read about tweeted a message a day from His reading (only take a few
minutes). Others enjoying writing in a
book. I actually use drawings,
paintings, and digital art as a form of journaling His Word. Whatever method you choose, it should be one
that you know will fit easily into your schedule, match your personality, and
enable you to look back periodically seeing how far you’ve come.
Reading God’s
Word daily, feeding your spirit man daily is one of the greatest and most
rewarding spiritual disciplines as it creates a hunger within you, and lays the
foundation for successful daily living.
Let’s get
started!
