I recently listened to a sermon on pride, and he talked about how one of the ways to root out pride is to practice the spiritual disciplines, like prayer and Bible reading.
Bible reading and prayer can be something we feel obligated to do, or feel pride in doing. Or, we can, in the name of “no legalism”, decide it’s not all that important after all, and let it slide.
How important is it? For one thing, if we love God, we want to obey Him and know more about Him, and His Word is where we find that. But as the sermon was making me realize, there’s another reason why it is important to do regularly. It’s admitting that we can’t live without God. We need Him, and His wisdom spoken into our lives.
“At the end of your time with the Lord, close your Bible, and say this: “God, what I just did makes absolutely no contribution to my justification, but what I just did is a bold statement of my need and dependence on you.” -C.J. Mahaney
We’re not earning anything, but we are living out the truth that we’re lost without Him. We need His wisdom to get through the day!
I remember trying desperately to remember to read my Bible every day when I was younger. More often than not, I would leap out of bed after almost falling asleep and find a Psalm at random. I usually didn’t get much out of it. And the times when I did do it thirty days running I wouldn’t be so much encouraged by the word of God but rather relieved that I’d actually made it that far.
Ironically, now I don’t feel obligated to do it, but it’s the best thing ever! God makes His Word alive to me in amazing ways, and it is crazy-exciting. And on the days when I don’t feel like it, I have to realize that those are the days when I need Him more than ever! I have to always remember that I can’t do this life on my own–it’s way too hard, way too complicated. I can’t rely on my wisdom, because I don’t have any! I desperately need God and His beautiful grace, every single day.
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