Everything is competing for our time. Most of us in this church have families, and hundreds if not thousands of responsibilities that come along with that. The kids need to be fed, clothed, and taught. The bills need to get paid, which means hours at a job that take away from raising the family. This is not to even mention the other responsibilities we have in our own wellbeing as a healthy member of society. Yet, as Christians we understand that our wellbeing is sorely neglected if we do not attend to the regular reading of the Word. The Word of God is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). That is to say we are incomplete without it. As Christians, we cannot commit ourselves to the building of the kingdom unless we are in the Word regularly.
And so, it is imperative that we fight to have some time to go to the Word every day. This may sound demanding, but there is good reason for it. Every other source of information is fallible; they can make mistakes. This goes for the internet sites we read, the videos we watch, etc. Each one of these media are funneling information to us, much of which is wrong. Yet God has given us one medium by which He gives us information that is true from beginning to end. Not only is it true, but the Scriptures contain all the necessary information we need to live as Christians, and to walk with the Triune God of Creation. It is not merely an encyclopedia; it is the very way that God talks with us today. The Spirit within us guides us to truth by pointing us to the Scriptures, and there we see the story of God’s redemption for His people, and we are in turn comforted as it tells us how we are part of God’s chosen people.
Yet I can still hear the protest of many: on top of all of my responsibilities, I have not the time. Reading is way down on my list, and on top of that I’m not very good at reading anyways. This is why we must foster the habit of reading, and that will take some time. We can’t beat ourselves up when we fall down, nor can we take such a failure to mean that this goal is something we can’t attain. One way of doing this is making the goal small at first. Read one chapter of the Bible a day. This is quite attainable, as there are chapters that may only take five minutes to read. Continue doing this until you can do more. Unfortunately, what happens with most people when they form habits is they set the goal to high. They read ten chapter a day for three days, they burn out, and then they quit altogether. Better to start small and build up than lose the habit. One chapter a day for a year is better than five chapters a day for a month. And even on an intangible level, communing with God through His Word each day keeps us invigorated. Better to make the goal small so as to continually feed your soul.
And this is where it becomes hard for many. We live in an age of immediate gratification. We want to see the fruit of the work we do. Yet the fruit that comes from reading the Word is not so quickly apparent. We may never see that pay off of this or that chapter, yet the growth over time is worth it. Reading in general has been abandoned by this age because there is no “dollar amount” per chapter. There’s no exchange rate for the chapters put in to the benefits taken out. But there are immense benefits! Over time you will see a growth in yourself, you will begin to desire the things of the Lord, and you will begin to teach others through the conversations you have. It comes with time and patience.
So be encouraged. It may not be something that comes easily, but the more you learn about the Scriptures the more you will gain a deep love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Make good use of resources that are available. Reading plans make it easy to know where to start and how to continue, and the catechisms and Confession with their Scripture proofs make it easy to know where to go for particular subjects and topics. And of course, preachers, elders, and others in the congregations are a wealth of information on where to start and encouragement in the Christian walk, as they know what it was like to start out. As this church continues to grow, I pray that eventually we are not only a church full of believers, but believers that know and cherish the Whole Counsel of God.