In my past, I haven't always been great at daily
scripture study, in fact there were times when I was terrible with it.
It wasn't that I didn't care, I just didn't make the time or believe
that it would make any significant impact in my daily life. Sometimes I
thought that caring about God and Jesus Christ, and trying hard to
follow them was enough. I don't know what enough means, but I was approaching it all wrong. It isn't about doing enough. God
doesn't ask me to do things like study scriptures because he thinks its
cool to give me homework, or because he wants to see if I will obey.
He asks me to do this because he knows it will change my life. He knows
it will change the way I see things, that it will impact every day,
every trial, every decision. The word of God is for me.
The
first time I truly realized this, I was about to face a major trial in
my life. I didn't know what was coming, but I believe the Lord knew he
could help me, by teaching me that the scriptures were a lifeline to
connecting with him. It was lent, and instead of giving something up, I
decided to give something for Lent. It was a time when I had an hour commute each
way into Boston for work, and my job often kept me late hours. I didn't
have much free time to spare, but I decided I would give up time and
sleep to give 30 minutes each night to scripture study. I wanted to read
the gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That
study time became a time of deep reflection and concentration on Jesus
Christ, his life and mission, and how much he loves each one of us. The nights when it was extremely painful to be up studying for
those 30 minutes are the ones that brought me closest to Christ...I knew
I was doing this for him, and that there wasn't any other person I would do this for. What I have learned is that there's honestly no sacrifice we
make for Christ that he doesn't see, or that isn't personal to him. Any time we do something for him, it's personal. He receives it with his whole heart, and his love for us overflows and comes into our lives in undeniable ways.
When we set time out from our busy life to study our scriptures, we are not
only putting ourselves in a place to receive his revelation for us, and
to receive his blessings, but we are also bonding with him. And that
bond has carried me through trials that are too difficult to explain.
That bond with Christ is my greatest blessing in this life, the reason I
am able to feel him close, even on my hardest days. That bond is the
reason I am ok, even when my whole world is falling apart.
Never
again will I forget the importance of taking that time with him. I need
it in my life. If you haven't tried a serious study of the scriptures, I
can't recommend it more. You may feel that you show your commitment to
God in other ways, or that other things you are doing are enough.
But it's not about that. It's about your relationship with God our
Father, and Jesus Christ. There is true power that we claim through
reading the scriptures, that we can't get in any other way.
The blessings are there, just waiting for us to claim them. I truly hope
I never lose sight of this, and I'm grateful to
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