There’s a trick to writing about God’s word…you have to actually be reading it.
It blows my mind how I can know that the Bible changes me, blesses me, helps me worship, yet I just don’t make time to read it. Oh, I have the time. Maybe not the get-out-all-the-books-and-research kind of time but at least open-the-book time. Just look at the data usage on my phone and you’ll see I have plenty of time.
On my memo board in the kitchen I’ve had in big letters “Be in God’s Word” for about 3 months. I had one of those light bulb moments this fall and scribbled it there and guess what? I still daily need that reminder. Desperately.
As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes I’d rather write about reading the Bible than actually read the Bible.
And sometimes I really, really struggle to quiet my mind and heart when I’m spending time with God.
I cringed yesterday when I realized how my kids were starting to gravitate toward my phone. My thought was, “Look how important they think your phone is. Do they know how important your Bible is to you?”
You know what I crave? Silence. Enough sleep. An hour before the kids wake up to spend time with my Maker. But here’s the reality: I’m a mom (a sick mom this week, which makes it even crazier). I have two little munchkins draining my energy. I’m spent. And the moments I pull out my Bible inevitably find the two-year-old climbing on me or the baby ripping its pages instead of eating.
All this to say that our relationship with God takes work. And he knows that. And he’s not sitting in heaven heaping guilt on us when we struggle to find time to meet with him. But he is waiting for us to call out and draw close to him so he can come running to meet us. He loves when we seek him.
So my challenge for myself is – how can I replace some of the time I waste with time spent with God? How can I bring my children into my times of worship? And when I do have quiet times, how do I quiet my mind and focus on God only?
How do you make this work? I’d love to hear your strategies for spending time with God in your busy life!