There has never been a time in history when Christians have had more Bible related resources available at their fingertips.
- We have more than 10 million Christian books in the world. [i]
- There are approximately 92,000 religious podcasts. [ii]
- Every week, approximately 50k sermons are broadcast. [iii]
We are incredibly blessed to have so many Christian resources so readily available to us. Yet, Bible teachers, podcasts, and books should never replace the personal and exclusive time each of us needs daily with God through His Word. The main purpose for Christ’s life, his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, is for us as individual believers to personally connect with God daily through His Word. God’s Word is ultimately our source for life and light. (Matthew 4:4; Psalm 119:105)
You’ll probably not be surprised that the amount of time the average person spends personally reading the Bible on a regular basis is tragically low. (Only 11% read the Bible daily and only 16% read the Bible 4-6 times a week.) [iv] A Lifeway research study of churchgoers found that “while 90 percent ‘desire to please and honor Jesus in all I do,’ only 19 percent personally read the Bible every day.” [v]
The Reformation changed the world largely due to
the Bible being put into the hands of the everyday believer.
We know that “accessibility to the Bible” is not an issue for any of us. Our issue is “prioritization of our time in the Bible”. And yet, we all know this is easier said than done. The pace in our world is unprecedented. We are squeezed daily with unrelenting demands and duties that far exceed the hours in a day. However, unless we prioritize what’s important, the tyranny of the urgent sweeps us into the world’s current of crisis management.
The powerful pressures of the world you and I experience in our daily lives are no surprise to Jesus. He warned us in the Parable of the Sower that it’s easy for people to be “overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.” (Mark 4:10 MSG) At the height of his ministry, no human being experienced higher demands on their time than Jesus, yet he prioritized and protected his time with the Father. (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16)
What if we followed Jesus’ example and prioritized and protected our personal daily time with God? What if we had a “holy resolve” to commit at least 7 minutes a day to reading Scripture and prayerfully listening to God for at least one lesson that we can apply from His Word to an issue we’re facing that day?
If you did this, consider the number of lessons you would have personally learned directly from God for your life! The average life expectancy in the U.S. is 80 years old, so if you started investing just 7 minutes a day alone with God…
- …As a 25-year-old, you would have personally experienced over 20,000 daily lessons from God.
- …As a 40-year-old, you would have personally experienced over 14,000 daily lessons from God.
- …As a 55-year-old, you would have personally experienced over 9,000 daily lessons from God.
- …As a 65-year-old, you would have personally experienced over 5,000 daily lessons from God.
It’s never too late to start and God promises that His Word will teach “us what is true…useful for correcting our mistakes…(and) useful for making our lives whole again”. (2 Timothy 3:16 NIRV)
If you would like personal help, insights or additional resources on how you can develop a lifestyle of personally investing at least 7 minutes a day with God, contact me at joe@bleonline.org.
[i] www.learnreligions.com/christianity-statistics-700533
[ii] Blubrry Podcast Directory
[iii] Pew research
[iv] American Bible Society 2021 survey
[v] Transformational Discipleship study reveals low level of “Bible engagement.”