Limited time to read? Read what sustains and transforms you. In order to make disciples, we must be disciples. And disciples must have a direct relationship with God. We cannot expect to be disciples if we don’t regularly talk with and listen to God. We must understand that he is not only Savior but is also Lord. He speaks to us, reminds, and directs us through circumstance, friends, etc, but his Word provides us with direct communication.
Reading for Sustenance
You’ve heard this before, but I say it again because you still aren’t doing it. You know you need to, you know his word does more to sustain you than anything you will eat, drink, or breathe today. So if you haven’t read your Bible and prayed today, stop reading this now and do it! Get off Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and the internet—unless thats’s where you are reading the Bible—and read the Word of God. If you have limited time to read, read the Bible first.
I wrote Food in God’s Place to communicate the value in a side by side, daily walk with Jesus, to show the value of fasting in the greater context of Christian living, and to show how fasting works as a focal lens for prayer. I hope you read it, but only if it is supplemental to your Bible reading. Do not read my book if you are not reading your Bible. Although my book contains many scriptures and I worked very hard to make the conversations with Jesus feel real, my book is only a testimony, a reflection of my imagination and experience guided by prayer, but if you have limited time to read, read the Bible first.
As I said in Listen to God, listening to me first gives you a way out. You can say, ‘that sounds right, but after all that is your opinion.’ If you read God’s Word and have a relationship with him, you have to do what he says or refuse. So first, foremost, before you do any thing else, spend time with him.
I’m beginning to question if I should even write publicly in this genre because by doing so I might distract someone from reading the Word, but as long as I keep pointing to him I guess it is okay. I will willingly trade 1000+ new readers of my blog and book for one person in my small group to become a regular student of the Bible. Limited time to read? Read the Bible first.
