The Bible and Your Everyday Life

By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy of Priscilla Du Preez

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

~2 Timothy 3:16-17

What is usually the first thing to go when the busyness of everyday life invades? Typically, it is our time with the Lord. What a grievous mistake we make here. When we do this, we truly are shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot, depriving ourselves of the source of the strength and vision required for faithful, God-centered living.

How often do we as women feel downright weak in our marriages, our work, and in our mothering? When we feel spiritually, emotionally, and mentally sluggish, when we find ourselves going through moments where we feel like utter failures, when we begin to allow Satan and his lies to invade our thinking, we can know that we have relegated God to the back burner for far too long.

Friends, we are sucking the very lifeblood out of our everyday lives when we move Bible study and prayer to the very bottom of our to-do lists. We are taking the most important practice—that of meeting with God—that would make all the difference in the world for ourselves and our families and treating it as if it is not important. In reality, as the passage above illustrates, being in the Word is where our strength comes from for our lives and responsibilities . It follows then that we would be weakening our endurance and abilities in these areas when we are not in communion with God on a regular basis. Just as we would not go without physical food to energize and nourish our bodies, likewise we should not be going without spiritual food, the Word of God, to energize and nourish our

souls.

We are muddling our understanding of what are true, right priorities when we are not regularly taking in the wisdom of God’s Word and His perspective for life. We are depriving ourselves of the comfort, knowledge, insight, encouragement, strength, and help required in order to live this one life well and perform the good works that have been prepared beforehand for us to walk in. We are going through life without the instruction manual.

Too often we, in an effort to be nice and understanding, will tell fellow sisters-in-Christ

that we know how busy they are and how impossible it is to spend time in the Word in this season, giving them a free pass for ignoring God’s Word. That’s not a very nice thing to say, however, as it deprives that sister of what she actually needs. It likewise is simply not true to the Biblical text or to God’s priorities for His people. The Lord gave us the great gift of His Word precisely because He expects us to be in it and benefit from it, viewing it as our roadmap for life.

The problem is that we have entertained the mistaken idea that unless our quiet time situation is “perfect” (that we are up before our kids, have a hot cup of coffee nearby, are sitting in our favorite comfy chair with candle lit, music playing, journal and Bible in hand, and a free hour in which to study and pray), then it’s all for naught and there’s no point in

it. If our only option is to read for just five quick minutes before the baby wakes up, or if we only get to do our reading once the kids are all already awake around us, we believe all is lost. This mistaken idea is evidence of our placing more faith and power in the circumstances surrounding our Bible reading than in the actual Bible itself and the God behind it. Do we actually believe the Word to be alive and active or not? Do we really

believe it will not “return void” (Isaiah 55:11), or do we think God lied in this verse?

 Our answers to these questions (after we have searched our hearts in this area) will determine our attitude and our outlook when our desire for a quiet “quiet time” goes unmet. The power of God’s Word is not dependent upon how long we read it or if we have a hot cup of coffee and no children nearby. The power of God’s Word is in the very fact that it is God’s Word and that it “shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). I propose that the “perfect quiet time” is simply any time you open the Word of God—no matter what the extenuating circumstances. 

So, I ask you today, friend: what will you do to ensure that you have time in the Word today?