EP 53: Daily Bible Reading (Spiritual Disciplines Series)

We are continuing in a series here at the podcast on the Spiritual Disciplines. On today's episode, we are going to discuss the importance of reading God's Word along with some practical helps to implement it into our days.

We have a God that we can know and meet with and because of that, we should meet with God on a regular daily basis.

My hope is by the end of the podcast today that we would all see and understand why we need to do this as those who are born again – first off if we’re in Christ God is our Father, and we are His children. I want to spend time with my Heavenly Father. I desire to know Him more because as I do that I get a clearer understanding of who I am in light of Him and it changes my perspective of the world as I begin to see all of life and the world through His perspective. This only comes about as I spend time with Him in worship, in fellowship and in the reading of His Word—which is the topic today.

I can only come before God because of Jesus—He is the mediator between God and sinful man. If we’re in Christ, we have access to the Father, and we can meet with Him and know Him because of Jesus.

Hebrews 4:16 tells us – Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

John 17:17 tells sanctify them in truth – your word is truth. Jesus is praying for our sanctification the process of being made more and more into Christlikeness. It’s to be like Jesus. He is asking the Father to do this by the truth. What is truth? God’s Word is truth. We are sanctified by truth – God’s Word is truth, so we are sanctified by the Word of God. I could just stop here because that’s a pretty good reason enough for us to be in the Word on a regular daily basis.

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If you haven't listened to the first one in this series you can do that here – EP 52 Introduction to the Spiritual Disciplines

Show Notes:

“No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible, God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible, we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how God wants us to live, and what brings the most joy and satisfaction in life. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately!” ~ Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

“The most critical discipline is the intake of God’s Word. No factor is more influential in making us more like the Son of God than the Spirit of God working through the Word of God. If you want to be changed, if you want to become more like Jesus Christ, discipline yourself to read the bible.” ~ Donald Whitney

If you want to be changed, if you want to become more like Jesus Christ, discipline yourself to read the bible

“So hearing the Word of God is not merely passive listening; it is a discipline to be cultivated.” ~ Donald Whitney

Philippians 4:8 Questions to Help You Meditate on the Word:

-What is true about this, or what truth does it exemplify?

-What is honorable about this?

-What is just or right about this?

-What is pure about this, or how does it exemplify purity?

-What is lovely about this?

-What is commendable about this?

-What is excellent about this (that excels others of this kind)?

-What is praiseworthy about this?

~ Above Questions are taken from Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life

“Without the Bible, we will soon lose the genuine gospel and the real Jesus and the true God. For now, if we are to saturate our lives with the words of life, we must be people of the book.” ~ David Mathis, Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines

Hannah Anderson describes discernment as “the ability to sort between a host of options and pick what is good.” She continues, “discernment does not change the challenges we face; it changes our ability to face them.”

“Do you realize that tape-recorded readings of the Bible have proven that you can read through the entire Book in seventy-one hours? The average person in the United States watches that much television in less than two weeks. In no more than fifteen minutes a day, you can read through the Bible in less than a year’s time.” ~ Donald Whitney