Reading the Word

In several different ways over the past week, God has been telling me to get into His Word more. When God is trying to get your attention, it tends to repeat in ways that is hard to ignore. Isn't it interesting that my conviction for the week is to make reading the Bible my priority when I have been struggling with that very thing recently? It's no coincidence, that's for sure. Whatever my lame excuses have been (too busy, too tired, gotta brush my teeth) they are no good. It's all about setting priorities because we all choose what we do with each hour we are given. Even though I work 8-5 I still have several spare hours in which I can select my activity. Be it that I love reading, my stacks of books are always calling my name, but if I haven't opened my Bible that day, I need to make a choice.

Here are a few ways God showed me:
1. While volunteering at Our Giving Tree store at church, I assisted a Dad with picking out a teen Bible for his young daughter. I talked about how I love my small Bible because I can carry it wherever I go.

2. The book I have been reading, Lit, talks about all kinds of reading, but that the Bible should be the first and most important, for it sets standards by which everything else I read stands against. This is how we gain discernment, when that firm foundation in the Bible is set and we can compare all that we see in the world with what the Bible says.

3. A blog I randomly came across, written by a girl about my age who loves to write, had a post about how she stopped reading all other books except the Bible for a little while, because she realized the other books were taking precedence over her time with the Bible. I realized with disdain that I have done this very thing. Set aside the Bible for other books.

So, I am feeling convicted. God has shown me in 3 ways how I need to sink into His Word much more than I have been. I haven't been totally neglecting it, but it hasn't been the highest on my priority list. And you know? It's when I give God time that things work as they are meant to, without my fretting about it. It's because my focus is with Him.