Disciples Study Daily!

I have several devotional books to choose from each morning. When I want to be hit by hard truths, challenged to linger and grow, I turn to Walk With God: The One-Year Devotional. I found this morning’s reading most convicting:

“Most of us…measure our spiritual maturity [this way]. We assume that the heights we’ve reached indicate the level to which we’ve grown. Many Christians…let our spiritual highs determine our self-image, and we live off of their memory while neglecting daily growth. Think of the inconsistency of that. Do we feast one day and then decide that we need no more nutrition for a few weeks? No, our bodies pester us with their need for daily sustenance… Our souls are more subtle. We respond to their hunger pangs with memories of past meals and expect them to be satisfied. But…true discipleship is consistent. The blessings of discipleship and worship are found only in their consistency. Measure yourself not by your highs or lows, but by who you are in between them.”

Ouch!

I have friends who commiserate with me about our lack of daily discipline because we are not in the Word every day. Knowing others have this struggle somehow validates it in my mind; if [insert name of godly friend here] isn’t in the Word every day, then I must be okay even though I am not.

I can have my daily snippets of quick devotional readings and be reminded momentarily of Who God is and inspired to live for Him. But if I’m not reading His Word, His actual Word, every day, then I am backsliding whether it’s apparent or not. My inconsistency makes me an unreliable disciple. No wonder I still struggle with temper and overeating and laziness; little daily snacks don’t satisfy a soul.

As an inspiring writer, I have this sign posted by my computer: “Writers write. Daily.” I continually remind myself that thinking about writing is not writing. Reading about writing is not writing. Planning to write is not writing. If I really want to call myself a writer, I need to write. Every day.

Tonight I’ll be adding a new reminder sign: “Disciples study the Word. Daily.” If I’m going to call myself a Christ-follower, I actually need to follow, to learn, to study, to seek Him. The Amplified Bible (in the book of Acts) repeatedly restates “believe in Him” as “believe, adhere to, trust in and rely upon Him.” The state of mind is not enough. It is the actual doing, the daily discipline of sitting at Jesus’ feet, that makes a disciple.

Disciples study. Daily!

Do you spend time reading the Bible each day? If so, how do you motivate yourself to ensure it gets done?

Questions for God

- What is the purpose of wind?  I understand why we have rain, and snow, and sunshine, but what does wind do?  More specifically, what is the purpose of South Dakota winds - the kind that are 30 mph, 45 mph, 60 mph? (Other than slamming the car door shut on legs and fingers, and scattering vital papers over a 30-mile radius?)

- Why did You create mosquitoes?  Do they have a worthy purpose in Your plan, or are they just instruments Satan uses to torture and harass us?

- Why can I remember useless things from years past - stupid poems I learned as a child, rock songs with unholy lyrics, mean things my ex-husband said?  And how come these foolish things take up precious brain cells and crowd out useful things I really should remember - my best friend's cell phone number, the name of my child's teacher, my wedding anniversary?  Does my brain need rebooting, or is it a permanent malfunction?

- I am slogging through menopause at the same time my daughters are entering puberty.  Is this some kind of punishment?  And can my husband survive the drama?

- Why is life so unfair?  My parents are dealing with multiple health problems and running out of money.  A couple I know has a child - their only child - who struggles with crippling seizures, and now the wife has cancer too.

- How is it that I can find time to read so many things - the newspaper, magazines, books, even food labels - yet struggle to faithfully find time to read Your Word?

Lord, I am so glad You know the answers to life's questions (humorous or serious), that You know the condition of every heart, that You promise to care for us and never to leave us.  Help me to put my trust in You, my hand in Yours, and let You lead me through this life, confident that someday I'll know the answers too.  Show me those in need and help motivate prod me to bless them, to be Jesus to them.  I pray this in Jesus' name.  Amen.

You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
-Psalm 145:16

The Truth Project

Tonight we gathered with a group of friends to begin viewing Focus on the Family's The Truth Project video series in our home. I saw this series last year in church and loved it; it does a wonderful job at examining our culture and our faith in light of absolute truth, which is found in God alone - He is the author of truth, because He alone is truth.

Yet how quick we are to disregard His Word and His promises, and how quick we are (okay, by WE here I mean ME) to instead believe Satan's lies. The lie that we don't need God, that He doesn't provide, that He doesn't love us, that we need to take care of ourselves because He's too busy or cannot or will not.

One of the things that appeals most about the Truth Project is that so often Christians (especially Bible-believing Christians) are regarded as Neanderthals, belittled for believing a book, and thought to be people who don't think, who unquestioningly trust in an ancient, hopelessly out of date faith. Yet the Word of God is not out of date; it is living and active. And unlike so many mythical tales that have proven false over the ages, scientists and historians and anthropologists make new discoveries each day that attest to the truth of the Bible.

I love knowing that, although God asks us to believe in Him, trust in Him, and read His Word, He also is the God of our minds as well as our hearts. He is deeper than the deepest discoveries man can make, deeper than the greatest mysteries known to science. And He doesn't ask us to shut off our minds when we come to Him; in fact He invites us to get to know Him, to test Him and see that He is trustworthy.

C.S. Lewis, the great scholar, set out to prove that Christianity was a hoax and became converted in the process. Along with others, so did Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel. And then these men wrote books and compiled evidence to show the world - and the church - the proof. God's Word will stand the test of time and every test man can create. Do you doubt? Then earnestly seek the truth and you will find Him!