Oh how easy it is to be distracted. I always have four or five books going at one time, TV programs to watch, children and home to care for, recipes to write and prepare, and many, many other daily activities. So finding time to just sit with God's Word can be a challenge. Honestly, it's probably right up there with exercising- I don't do it near enough, but both will be good for me.
One of the traits I admire in other people a lot is their ability to recite scripture. Those people who, in the regular flow of conversation will just rattle off a verse because it fits. It's admirable to me, because if they have that many verses tucked away inside their head, they obviously have spent some precious time in the Bible, and that's something that I always need to do more of.
One thing that I have done, that seems to be helping, is that I've stopped watching the news. Completely. I pull up the weather channel once or twice a week to check the weather, and I read the headlines when my internet pops up, but I stay away from news broadcasts entirely. Why is that? Because it would be too easy to hear the reports, watch all the horrible news from day to day, and then walk away depressed. Walk away thinking about how terrible the world we live in is, and I question the sanity that caused me to bring children into it. And it makes me fear for them.
Instead of turning on the news, I sit down and open up my Bible. I read in Genesis of the wonderful world that God created, I read the Psalms and the joys and the tribulations of David. I read the love story in Song of Solomon, I read of the time of the judges in Judges, and I read of the world through Paul's travels in the Corinthians, Philippians and Ephesians. And I always walk away with a smile on my face, and I also always walk away with something to think on, to dwell on. I think about those words that David wrote so long ago, and how wonderful it is that they still apply to me today. Sometimes an old sermon, message I heard long ago will spring to mind, and all the sudden I will just understand it.
God's Word is so miraculous and alive. Every word inside has a purpose. And I want to know what that purpose is. I want to stop focusing on man, because man will fail each and every time. Every time we build someone up, or put them on a pedestal, we're opening ourselves up for disappointment. We can read the books that have been written about the Bible by great men and receive great encouragement from them, but we also need to remember that those books were written by men- not by God. It is God's word only that is infallible, and it is that one book that I will rely on. My thirst for knowledge will not be quenched in the words of man, but in the words of the Lord Our God.
"Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:97-103
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