I don’t know where I first heard the
phrase “quiet time.” I knew what it was
before my family became involved in a church.
I know this because the first time I tried to have a “quiet time” was to
impress a pastor at summer camp. I
waited until he left the cabin to go to the shower-house, then I went out on
the cabin porch with a Bible my parents had given me. When I saw him walking back, I opened up my
Bible and began staring at the page trying to look as holy as possible. The whole thing sort of backfired when the
pastor asked me what I was reading. I
read the heading over that paragraph and repeated it to him.
Have you ever seen the second Pirates
of the Caribbean movie? At the
beginning of the movie the guy with the wooden eyeball is on a rowboat
“reading” a bible. His friend begins to
tease him about doing this. The ensuing
conversation about Divine providence comes to a humorous end when the guy with
the Bible’s friend points out that he can’t even read. The man with the wooden eyeball is ready,
however, as he says, “It’s the Bible, you get points for trying!”
The man and the wooden eyeball and
my 11 year old self had the exact understanding of devotional reading of the
Bible. It was the thought that counted,
just holding the bible in your hands, reading the words—regardless of whether
or not you understood them—this added some strange and commendable holiness to
your life. This continued to be my view
of reading the Bible devotionally for years to come. It was not until I was a freshman in college
that my view on how Scripture should impact my life on a daily basis
changed.
Understand, by the time I was a
freshman in college, I had preached several sermons, had been a leader in my
youth group, and was considered by my peers to be knowledgeable about the
Bible. Despite all these things,
however, I had never kept a consistent devotional time. I had tried.
I had purchased devotionals, Bibles, journals, and I had tried to use
these things, but the result was always the same, after a few days of making
myself spend time reading Scripture, I stopped. It would make for a great story
if I said I stopped reading the Bible each time I tried to read it devotionally
because twelve demons ganged up on me, wrenched my Bible from my hand, and
threatened me to never touch it again.
But that’s not what happened. I
didn’t read my Bible daily because . . . I didn’t want to.
In college God blessed me with some
friends who were making God’s word a part of their daily lives. I was blessed
to live with a guy named Pete my sophomore year, and I saw Pete reading his
Bible a lot. I am not saying this guy was reading the Bible ten hours a day or
anything, but I could tell when Pete encountered Scripture, it was because he
wanted to. Being around people like Pete
showed me that spending time in the Word of God was not about showing other
people you are so holy that you get up every morning and wade through all the
genealogies in Chronicles, instead, reading the Bible daily is about satisfying
a hunger, a thirst, a deep desire for God’s presence in your life.
This realization sparked a journey
for me, one that I am still on. I would
love to say that my sophmore year of college I have felt such an insatiable
hunger for God’s Word that I have not missed spending time in it a single day
since, but this is not the case. The
truth is that God used that time in my life to begin leading down a path where
God’s Word became more and more a part of my daily life. It has been like learning to appreciate good
food or fine art, the more I have experienced God’s Word, the more I have wanted
it, craved it, needed it.
It is my prayer that God has already
kindled in you a hunger for his Word. I
pray that it is a part of your daily life.
But if it is not, or if it is and you are looking for encouragement, I
want to provide some assistance in getting you started. To do this, I am posting two articles on this
blog. One focuses on why to spend daily
time in God’s Word. In this article I
have tried to share with you some of the things God planted in my heart to
cause me to crave his Word. The second
article is on how to spend daily time in God’s Word and discusses some basic
methods and tools which have helped me in my journey.
I was once like the man with the
wooden eye. I thought that the reading
the Bible earned me some kind of “holy points.”
But no such points exist. Spending
time in God’s Word is not about what we earn, it is about what sustains
us. It is not about what we should do,
it is about what we desire to do. It is
not about cold piety, but consuming passion.
It should not be admirable, it should be addicting. I pray you become addicted as well my friends,
for what kind of transformation would come from those addicted to the Word of
God?
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