So many mothers have told me that spending time with God is something they don’t have time for. They drift throughout the day, doing whatever comes up. They feel frustrated with their lives because they get nothing done. They feel foggy, and they blame their lack of relationship on the fog. The problem is that they haven’t made spending time with God a priority, or they would do it. There’s something about connecting with God that makes the whole rest of your day better. Stop beating yourself up, and just do it. The Word of God never returns void.
Just reading the pure Word of God is wonderful. You don’t need any fancy stuff. The book of Psalms is a great place to find comfort during sorrow, and Proverbs is a great place to find wisdom. If you prefer reading a story, there are so many in Genesis. Or the stories of David in 1st Samuel, or of Elijah in 1st and 2nd Kings.
Silence, I mean opening up your spirit to God, is more important than the amount of Scripture you read, if you expect to actually live it. For example, let’s say you read a verse in Proverbs about anger. It convicted you. Now look up. Stop what you’re doing. Chew on the verse. Ask God to make that verse a reality to you. Even in the midst of kid noise, you can silence your own heart and open yourself up to God.
If you want to delve deeper into a particular topic, you can look up every verse on that topic in a Bible concordance. Then read the verses and surprise yourself. Right now I absolutely love reading about prayer and challenging myself to have a deeper prayer life. But in the past I’ve looked up verses on pride, anger, rest, and many other topics.
One day I was spending time with God, reading His Word, and my daughter came into the room. I have to say that it’s usually better to be totally alone with God so that you can give God your undivided attention and hear Him. But on this particular day, I let my daughter watch me as I studied and wrote down what God was teaching me from His Word. She smiled at me, left, and came back with a Bible and a sheet of paper. She opened up her Bible to Ruth and started copying down Ruth. You see, my 6-year-old girl wanted to be like Mommy. What I was doing looked delightful to her because she saw how delighted I was in what I was learning. It was a sweet moment I will never forget.
Another time my son Nathaniel was sick with a snotty nose. So I stayed home from church with him while everyone else left. I opened the Bible study that I was doing, and he did it with me. We had such a deep spiritual conversation, and every Scripture seemed to apply to a specific sin issue in his life. It was as if God had orchestrated for us to be home that day, and for me to land directly on the verses that my son needed. I saw visible spiritual growth in my son’s understanding. I tell you, it’s moments like these that make a grown woman cry for joy. But if you’re not studying your Bible, these moments will not happen.
I was just talking to my sister the other day over the phone, and I was telling her how desperately important it was to know the Word of God. If you don’t spend time in Scripture, God can’t bring the verses to your mind when you need them, to convict you of sin, or to know what to say to someone in need; to comfort you at just the right time, or to give wisdom for a major decision. You must study the Word of God. Choose to read pure Scripture. Proper Bible studies can be great, or they can be an anvil around your neck. Ask God before studying each topic. But please, at least pick up and read the pure Word of God. You will never regret having done so.
