I Know I Should, So Why Don’t I?

Do you enjoy opening your computer and seeing how many emails you’ve received each morning?  Checking email is the first thing I do each day, especially because my morning paper comes in one of those emails.  How about checking Facebook to see what’s happening with all your friends?  Don’t you love to peruse the pictures and find where and how your friends have been engaged?  It’s certainly an easy way to keep up with the kids or grandkids and your old school chums.  And don’t you just love to open your Bible early in the day to seek out God’s wisdom and truth as you face an uncertain path through life?  Hmmm.  Is that crickets I hear instead of a resounding “Amen”?

Why is it that many of us would rather read emails or scan Facebook and spend perhaps many hours each day doing both, yet we seem to lack the motivation or discipline to crack open the pages of Scripture to allow the Creator of the universe to speak with us?  Your response may be one of these:

“I know I need to study the Bible more, but….”

“I try to have a daily devotional time, but….”

“I have a hard time understanding what I read and I WANT to spend time with God, but….”

If you and I DO take time to open the pages of Scripture, we find passages like this:

 Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!  ¹¹ Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.  ¹² Blessed are You, O Lord!  Teach me Your statutes…¹⁵ I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.  ¹⁶ I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.   Psalm 119:10-16

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.   Psalm 119:18

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.  ³⁸ Establish Your word to Your servant…   Psalm 119:37-38

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.   Psalm 119:105

God promises us that something amazing will happen when we open and read our Bibles.  We find wisdom, direction, guidance, and even correction.  Paul urged Timothy to use the Word for just those purposes:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.  2 Timothy 3:16-17

As followers of Jesus, we are challenged to be good stewards of all God provides to us.  That stewardship certainly pertains to the material wealth God gives us.  We must spend and invest carefully to fulfill that requirement.  But TIME is like money.  We only receive a certain amount each day – none of us can claim more.  When we spend our moments and even hours on what the psalmist called “worthless things”, we must ask whether it’s time to change our behaviors.

My faith journey is likely very similar to yours, since we live in the same world, challenged by the same time-devouring possibilities.  Why don’t we covenant together to be more careful with our time?  To make opening God’s work our HIGHEST priority each day?   If you’ll do that with me, we can both enjoy the promise that John penned in the last book he wrote while he was in exile on Patmos:

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.   Revelation 1:3

God doesn’t ask us to spend time in the Word to keep us from other pursuits.  He urges us to do it because He knows we’ll be blessed when we do.  What else can you do that PROMISES a blessing?  I don’t know about you, but I could certainly use the blessing of God in my life!  Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”  (Luke 4:4) 

I don’t miss very many meals.  Now if only I could hunger after God’s Word the same way!

Jacob