Rushing Through the Bible

Growing in our relationship with Christ takes commitment. There needs effort needs to be put forth or the relationship will slowly wither. An one of the best things that you can do to grow your relationship with the Lord is to set aside time each day to spend reading the Bible and praying. Some people call this their "quiet time." If you are married, you might associate it with setting aside time each day to enjoy the company of your spouse.

This year I have been reading through the Bible in my quiet time. I've amazed myself. It's the end of October and I'm still on schedule! Most years my attempts to read through the Bible in a year end about the third week in January. I'm not sure why this year its working and other years I have failed, perhaps I am just getting older and can stay on task longer than I used to be able to.

Yesterday I noticed something, though. There is a danger to what I was doing. I read throught the chapters assigned for the day, closed my Bible and started to do some of the chores that needed to get done around the house. Then it dawned on me: I had read my Bible, but I had not encountered Jesus. Reading those chapters had become just something on my "to do" list. Instead of nurturing my relationship with Jesus, I was rushing through a task that needed to get done. It was like saying to my wife, "You pick up the kids and I'll pick up the milk. See ya, bye." Necessary? Perhaps. Better than nothing? Maybe. Growing a relationship? No.

Years ago I heard someone say that one of the keys to growing in your Christian life was a daily unhurried time in the Word of God. Unhurried, because we need to take the time to really enter into God's presence. That is what I was failing to do. I needed to slow down and realize that reading the Bible was good, but it was only a means to the end...a relationship with Christ.

So today I'm going to slow down for a moment. When a passage seems to be speaking to me, I'm going stop and listen. If when I read I don't seem to hear anything, I'm going back and reading a second and perhaps a third time because I know that Jesus is talking. I just need to tune in to what he is saying.

I know some of you are struggling with the issue of time. Who has any unhurried time? One way to deal with this during your quiet time is to cut down on the amount of things you think need to happen during your quiet time. For example, to read through the Bible in a year you need to read 3.5 chapters a day. Maybe that's too much to do in an "unhurried" fashion. Perhaps it would be better to take a book like Philippians (only 4 chapters) and make that your "book of the month". Better an unhurried encounter with Christ than rushing through some to-do list in order reach some goal that isn't what you were after in the first place!