A Daily Meal

The local Christian radio station started a new campaign for 2012.  Last year they took a different verse each week and encouraged listeners to memorize it.  This year, they are encouraging listeners to spend daily time in the Word.  Something most Christians know they should do, but maybe don't always find the time or motivation to be consistent. 

After a great message from my friend and pastor, Ryan Ashley, about looking to the Bible not as a tool to use in study, but as a means for learning about who God is and truly getting to know Him through what He has written, I began to realize I needed to grow in that this year. And then I heard the radio's promotion of daily time in the Word and realized God times those events in my life to get my attention.

Yesterday I heard a conversation on the radio about how we should view our time in the Word as our daily meal.  We would never think of eating lunch on Sunday and then fasting the rest of the week.  We wouldn't make it through the week!  We'd be hungry, cranky, tired, etc.  We have to feed our bodies on reglular basis in order to maintain our health. 

But that is what so many Christians do.  They eat the meal of a Sunday service and then fast the rest of the week.  And then wonder why we don't grow or find freedom or overcome obstacles in our life.  We are not giving our spiritual lives what they need to maintian health or beat sickness.  We get caught in the rut of starting off strong on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  But by the middle of the week we are tired, cranky, depressed, and falling back into old habits once again.

So that is my challenge.  In a few weeks I start co-leading an online Bible Study through my church.  I look forward to this because I will be held accountable to daily read the assigned verses and log-in to post questions about the verses we read.  Daily in the word - and I'm the leader - so I better not drop the ball!  I pray that by the end of the study, it will be a habit for me that will carry me through long after.