The Perfect Word

"As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him."  Psalm 18:30

I post a lot about the importance of reading your Bible and staying in the Word as much as possible.  Honestly, I post that because I need the reminder.  Often.  It's just entirely too easy to slide that Bible reading to the side in favor of other things.  I think that's normal.  Even when I have an established routine, all it takes is one slide to turn into a big slide, and a few weeks go by without opening up my Bible. It happens. But the great thing is that it is always there- it's like "old reliable".  When I realize that it's been too long, I can pick it up, and like an old friend, I am instantly wrapped up in the Words of the Lord, and it makes my spirit incredibly happy.

I think that all too often we get wrapped up in the importance of staying in our Bibles, and we spend too much time focusing on the actual act of reading, versus just letting the words speak to us.  For years I would feel awful because I didn't have a set time during the day when I would sit and read my Bible.  It seemed like everyone who talked about that time had a specific time- and a specific amount of time- set aside just for Bible reading and prayer.  I didn't have that.  I've never had that.  The closest I get to a regular time for Bible reading is lunch time.  I like to sit down at the table when I eat lunch and spend that time reading.  There are some days that I will just read and read, I'll get engrossed, and a whole hour will go by before I know it.  But there are some days where I will open up my Bible and just read a verse or two.  One lone verse can have such a huge impact and make me really think about it, that it is enough.  I feel like I've spent time in my Bible, and I can spend the rest of the day meditating on what that one verse is saying to me.

I love that.  Did you ever notice that there are no Bible reading guidelines actually within the Bible?  Oh, it says to read it all right, but no one gives any kind of timeline.  The closest I think we get is the daily bread, which indicates that we should be in our Bibles daily.  But it doesn't say how much we should read or how long we should read.  This means great freedom for people who may beat themselves up over something like Bible reading.  A busy mom with little ones running around does not need to feel bad about having so little time to devote to The Word.  God gets that, God knows that, and He certainly knows our hearts.  When we have those days where all we can do is quickly read just one verse taped to the fridge- instead of feeling badly about only being able to do that much, we should rejoice in that opportunity- no matter how small. Just one verse can give us more than enough daily bread to chew on for a full 24 hours.

The Bible is perfect every time we pick it up.  When we only have a moment, God can still show us something wonderful hiding inside. The last thing He wants is for us to feel badly about only having a moment.  Sometimes, it's those moments that can make the most profound difference in our lives.