Earlier this week, I read this quote in a devotional called Battle Prayers: “The longer I go without your Word, the weaker my spirit becomes and the harder my heart grows. But feasting upon it, I grow stronger and more sensitive to Your Spirit.”
It struck me as deeply true, coming off a week of vacation and disrupted routines and rhythms. My habit is typically to start the day with time reading and studying God’s Word, praying and journaling the things He is showing me.
On vacation, I got out of rhythm with this — grabbing a quick bite of God’s truth here and there, but spending no real substantial time meditating and feasting on the Word. We were too busy squeezing in all the sights and experiences and last moments of family time before my oldest moved back out to college. These are all good things, and it was OK to do them.
But I felt the lack of time with God and His perspective. I felt deeply a disconnection between my spirit and God’s. The world is loud, and it clamors for attention. On vacation, I gave in to that so I didn’t “miss out” on something our destination city had to offer.
We can become accustomed to the disconnect from time with the Lord and with His truth. We can begin to think that it is normal to go without the sustaining, life giving perspective of God. When I find myself in that mindset (believe me I have spent a lot of my life not regularly feasting on God’s Word) I begin to doubt Him, to grow faint, and I am more likely to question His goodness or His faithfulness to me.
There is something supernatural and mysterious that happens when we taste and see the Lord’s goodness by feasting on His Word and in time with Him. Among other things, I find hope, grace, connection to larger purpose, and strength. I find the doorway to worship, to intimacy, and to recognizing I am beloved by God.
It takes a specific act of the will and intention to choose to turn to the Word regularly. I have never regretted making that choice. It is not always an easy choice. It is very much a needful choice. So many things war against an eternal perspective about the events of our daily lives. Time in God’s Word draws me back to seeing things more from His all-encompassing point of view than from my limited one or the limited viewpoints of other human beings around me.
A favorite Casting Crowns song, "Voice of Truth," expresses the value of being in the Word in the face of the clamoring, accusing voices of the world and all those things opposed to God. It reminds us to listen to and to beleive the voice of Truth. How much I need the voice of Truth in my life every day.
I encourage you to give this matter some serious thought. Time in God’s Word doesn’t have to be hard or overwhelming. It can be as simple as choosing a Psalm to read repeatedly for a week or choosing one of the gospels to read through over a month. Find a Bible study to join this fall. At this back to school time of setting new routines and rhythms, perhaps creating a new commitment to time in God’s Word is something to add to your agenda.
Blessings as you seek more of Him!