Christian Living
Among the many excuses we Christians have for not reading the Scriptures, one of the most popular is that reading the Bible is boring. We don’t want to consult it, we don’t want to study it and with the growing number of churches in which the passages are displayed on screens; we don’t even have to open it at church!
As a result, we are unable to grow spiritually and end up being worldlier than the world itself. Our testimony not only doesn’t bring people to Christ, but causes people to stay away from Christianity. I am here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be this way
You CAN ENJOY reading your Bible every day. This is what I did…
About three or four years ago, I was struggling to read my bible every day; I felt no joy and no interest in the Word of God. Every time I read a passage I felt they were the same old things that I already knew, so I didn’t enjoy it.
One day it struck me that, given that I was a true Christian, I might have missed some principle that I needed to understand in order to enjoy reading the Word of God. It all started with this one passage:
A Pharisee asked Jesus what the great commandment of all was, and Jesus answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:36)
Right then and there, I realized I didn’t love the Lord in this way, and started asking Him to help me to love Him with all my heart, soul and mind.
The relationship between reading the Bible and loving God is most important. Imagine not loving your earthly mother of father and then receiving some letters from them. Would you really think you will be willing to read their letters over and over again? Of course not! But if you knew that they love you with unconditional love and you love them likewise, reading their letters would be a delight for you.
I decided that in order to really love God I needed to know him better, and started searching in the Old Testament all the passages that described His character.
I found this passage: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6,7)
Getting to know God more deeply through this and other passages stirred in my heart the love toward Him I so desperately needed.
Now that I was growing in my love for Him, I WANTED to obey the Lord in reading the Scriptures. I started to pray to Him that He would give me the joy I needed to do it. There is a promise I found helpful at that time; it gave me the assurance that I was in the right path:
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14,15)
So, I was absolutely sure that he would help me. I trusted him and he didn’t disappoint me. After just two or three days from the day I prayed for joy, I started to find many more truths in His word that I hadn’t before; this ignited the fire in my heart for keep reading the Scriptures. They literally came alive before my eyes!
There is not secret key to this process, really. There are basically five steps to do it:
1. - You need to be a real Christian, if you are not you won’t be able to even understand the Bible. (1 Corinthians 2:14) If you are unsure whether you are a true Christian, watch the video I posted here: http://onetruthonegod.tumblr.com/ titled “One of the most important passages of Scripture, by Paul Washer”
2. - You need to really WANT to obey God in this commandment. “You search the Scriptures” (John 5:39) If you don’t really want to obey him in this, there is no point in praying, because you are in rebellion toward him.
3. - Start praying to God to help you love Him deeply and search in the Scriptures regarding His character and attributes.
4. - Start praying that he will help you to really enjoy reading the Bible.
5. - Keep reading even if you don’t want to and he’ll reward your obedience. Take at least 15 minutes each day to read the Bible and He will do the rest.
I can truly testify to you that this works. I look forward to spend some time reading my Bible every day. Nothing can compete now with spending time studying the Word of God: no TV show, no hobby, no novel, no searching the web. He has put things in perspective because he knows that without Him I am helpless, and I know it too.
I pray to God that these simple truths can help you to draw closer to God and enjoy reading His wonderful word.
Happy reading!
You can reach me at [email protected]
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