I’m not sure what your daily routine consists of, but I can guess that every day – in the morning time or the nighttime – you do something to wake you up, get your mind right, and prepare yourself for the day or for sleep. Besides showering and brushing your teeth, it can be stretching, listening to a certain genre of music, talking to yourself in the mirror, doing a face mask, etc. All these things are great. I, for one love, listening to music to match my anticipated mood for the day. However, I want to recommend another activity that I think would be helpful when you wake up/go to bed – and that is reading the Word of God.
I imagine that if you’re reading this editorial then you either identify as a Christian or are interested in a relationship with God on some level, so let me reason with you for a moment. If we are all looking to strengthen our relationships with God, then wouldn’t it kind of be a no-brainer for us to spend time in His word each day? Like, if God is #1 in each of our lives, then doesn’t it make sense to make time each day to commune with Him and have fellowship with Him? Reading the Bible is a great way to do that. Remember, in order to believe in God and be saved, we need hope, or faith (Romans 8:24). And the Bible says that faith cometh from hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). In this train of thought lies the blatant importance of reading your Bible every day. Your Bible helps your faith, and your faith nurtures your relationship with God.
How can we ever learn to live a life where we fully depend on and trust in a God that we know nothing about? In order to trust, we must do what needs to be done in order to familiarize ourselves with God’s word and His character. You are naturally more inclined to trust people whose character you’ve fully caught onto. When we read the Word of God, who He is and what He thinks of us becomes more and more apparent to us – and the rest is literally human nature.
We must also remember that we are in a spiritual warfare people. That means that from the moment you wake up (even while you sleep), there is a war going on. There is an army of evil spirits that want to crush your relationship with God and bring about your spiritual death. To me, it’s no coincidence that the Apostle Paul called the Word of God the sword of the spirit (Ephesians 6:17). It is with this sword we survive and fight back in this spiritual warfare. Literally, picture yourself in a war right now – without a weapon. If you don’t have a weapon it is simply only a matter of time before you are caught slipping and utterly cast down. If it is war every day, then we need our sword every day.
So where do we go from here? There are many of us who have tried so many times in our lives to start reading the word of God routinely – and we have failed each time. We get off to a good start, but then we miss one day and that day snowballs into a week, then a month, then a year. Then we feel so bad about not taking the word seriously that we don’t feel worthy to come to God. Well first, let me tell you that you are sooooooo not alone. Sometimes reading the Word of God is like taking high doses of melatonin – and that is the spiritual battle we are facing! But we must persist. We must always get back up – remember – that is the point. You just must ALWAYS get back up.
I recommend you buy a devotional. When I was young, that’s how my parents got me and my siblings started. We read devotionals from Our Daily Bread every night before bed. It gave us a paraphrased lesson to read and then matched it with a passage in the Bible. There are also cool devotionals that you can get on Amazon – that one written by Sarah Young is a good one. Another tip is to literally Google, “Bible verses about __________” and read the chapters of the verses that pop up. As you learn more about what the Bible holds, one day you will get to the point when your Bible is marked up with notes and you’ve memorized places you can go to that will help you with what you need.
I hope after reading this devotional you’ve realized the importance of opening that Good Book every day. It’s so important. We must all take it seriously, as we all need our swords to fight this war. Don’t feel too bad after you missed a day, just make sure you get back up. Love you all! Happy reading.
