Saturday, April 17, 2010

Consistant Bible reading

Earlier today I was reading Jenna's post about self-control and daily Bible reading. I was thinking about how many of us have a hard time committing ourselves to reading God's Word each day, and decided to share some things that have helped me.

1) Force yourself to get up early
*Ahem*.... I'm not very good at this one... It's something I'm working on!
It often helps me to think of Psalm 118:24 in the morning when I don't want to get out of bed:

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.




2) Don't do anything else until it's done.
I know this can be impossible often, especially if you didn't get up when you wanted to. For example, we do family devotions at 8:30 each morning, and I can't change the time on that or be late because of my own quiet time. Or perhaps I *ahem* got up late and didn't have time to do it before we had to leave for something. So I just try not to do anything that I have any choice over before I do my quiet time. It may be 11:00p.m. by the time I get to it, but it works for me (although I try my very best to get it done in the morning!).

3) Keep a journal
You don't have to write much in it. I write the date, the passage I read, my verse of the day, anything that stood out to me, what I'm memorizing, what I'm personally working on for that day.... etc. Some days when I have less time I don't write much except the date and passage. Even if that's all you do, it keeps you accountable. Since I started doing this last April, I have never yet missed a day of Bible reading, even if it's only a chapter. I don't want to be missing any dates in my notebook! :)

Well, those are the three main things that I use to help make Bible reading a priority. Do you have anything to add to the list?


But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:2


To God be the glory!
Marissa

5 comments:

Lucia said...

Thank you so much for this encouragement! I was just thinking about that today...I have SUCH a hard time forcing myself to get up early (like you;) to read the Word, and have really been praying about that!
May Yah Bless!
~Lucia

P.S. (Thank you for your comment on my blog! YES, friends are wonderful. =)

Sarah said...

I love this post...it is very true and touching. Thank you for posting! I would say that probably the best thing for me to study God's Word more is to really get some quiet time for myself. I go outside normally. I shut out the whole world and tell myself that this is God's time. I need to ingore the rest of my life until this is finshed and complete. Hope this helps. :)

Love you,
Sarah

Anonymous said...

Great thoughts! I totally agree with your 3 points- I am NOT an early bird, but I would LOVE to be, and I know if I practice self-control by getting to bed earlier, this would come easier to me.
Thanks for sharing! =)

Samantha

Anonymous said...

This is really great! The third one is especially important, I think.... Often I will do my devotions without thinking about what I'm reading. If I keep a journal, then it makes me think a lot more about the context and what I'm learning.

Thanks for this!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous blog, girls! This post is an inspiration to me... It's always good to have a reminder of the things in life that may seem little but will have a greater effect in the day-to-day mill of life.