The Importance of God's Word

How important is the Word of God to you? Co you make sure that you spend some time everyday in His Word?
When I meet a fellow brother or sister in Christ, one of the first questions I ask is, “What have you been reading in the Word?” Which is usually followed by, “Is anything sticking out to you while you read?” Most of the time I get a response of “I haven’t been reading the Bible lately,” or “I’m...uh...reading...uh... I forgot what I read this morning.”
“For I delight in Your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to Your commands, which I love, and I meditate on Your decrees.” –Psalm 119:47-48
Delight- the source of pleasure; great satisfaction; joy (Webster’s Encyclopedia of Dictionaries)
Do you delight in the Lord’s commands because you love them, and Him?
Think of the Word of God this way... a letter written to you from the Person who loves you the most. If someone wrote you a love letter wouldn’t you want to read it every chance you got? (Personally I would especially if I said I loved that person back)
We as followers of Jesus Christ should want to spend time in God’s Word.
"Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long." -Psalm:119:97

Too Much Music

How many hours a day do we listen to music (whether it be CDs, the radio, ipod, or mp3 player)? I recently added up all the hours that I listen to music during the day and it ended up being about 10 hours a day. I was shocked! Now, I’m not saying that the music I listen to is bad and not God honoring, but it’s the fact that I listen to so much of it in a day.

How much time do we spend a day in God’s Word? For me...not nearly enough.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that
1. I’m going to cut back on my “intake” of music.
2. If I find myself having nothing to do; I’m going to use the time wisely, and read my Bible or a Christian devotional.

I would appreciate it if you (my faith readers) would keep me accountable.

Prayer As A Part Of Our Lives

I’ve recently been studying the Gospel of Luke during my quiet time with the Lord, and I came across this verse that really made me think.

“One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” -Luke 6:12

A normal person sleeps about 8 hours a night. Jesus spent at least 8 hours praying to the God of the universe that night. And I don’t believe this was some repetitious prayer that so many people repeat from memory.

How much time do we spend praying to the one who loves us so much that He died on the cross for us? I’d have to say that I don’t do it nearly enough.

Another thing that strikes me is the fact that He went to a lonely mountainside to pray. He went alone; no followers, no friends, no teachers of the Law, nobody. It was just Him and God; no distractions.

How many times do we as true followers of Jesus get distracted with all the noise around us? For most of us (including me) the answer is a lot. We tend to start praying then all of a sudden we hear something that catches our attention, and Jesus is forgotten. And then maybe a few hours later we remember that we never finished praying. “Oops, sorry, God. I won’t do that next time.” But odds are we probably will.

“When He (the Lamb of God) had taken it (the scroll), the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.” –Revelation 5:8

Focus on the last part of that verse for a moment. “...golden bowls full on incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.”

God loves us so much that when we pray to Him; He puts our prayers in a golden bowl. Our prayers must be really precious to Him if He does that with them.
Prayer isn’t just a quick thing you say before a meal, or bed. It’s a communication with God Almighty. He talks to us through His word (the Bible), and we talk to Him through prayer.
So why can’t we spend more than 5 or 10 minutes talking to Him, but we can spend hours talking to our friends?

He loved us enough to die for us. We can show our appreciation and love by spending more time in prayer with Him.

Prayer And Time With God

Our time spent with God while reading our Bible and praying is a very important part of our Christian walk. We as Christians need to have a daily time where we read our Bible and pray to God. When I say daily I mean daily. Everyday.
Why don’t we as Christians want to read our Bible and pray daily? Because we’re too “busy.” A couple of months ago I figured out something very important. I figured out that time with God is important. (How ironic) During the day I would tell myself I don’t have time to read my Bible or pray. I’m too busy. Man was I wrong!
I had a whole lot of time. I just would rather read a different book instead of the Bible. I used to stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning reading some book instead of the Bible. Now don’t get me wrong, reading books other than the Bible is ok so long as they are God honoring, and if it doesn’t take out your quite time with the Lord.
Now I find that I have no problem with finding time to read my Bible. Reading my Bible and praying daily has helped me get through the day. When I don’t read my Bible, it’s hard to concentrate on school, I find I’m very irritable, and just not a very nice person to hang around during the day. What a change! I thank God daily that I have a Bible and am able to read it without fear of being put into prison.
I want to say one last thing.
God loved us so much he sent His only Son to come to Earth and die on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins and purchase a place in Heaven for us. Shouldn’t we, His creation, give Him time? He loves us. We need to take time out of our busy schedule and talk to God. Share with Him what has been going on in your life. He is faithful.
1 Timothy2:13- If we are faithless He remains faithful...