Did you know that reading your Bible can easily become a dead work, and that’s exactly what it is to many Christians - yet they don’t even realize it! Don’t get me wrong, it is important to spend time in the Word. That is how we grow and our minds are transformed as we allow God’s Word to soak into our spirits and change the way we see things. But when we’re trying to punch a spiritual time clock by reading our Bible, that’s where the problem comes in. God does not love you any more or any less, based on how much you read your Bible. There are people who are said to be Bible experts, yet they don’t even know Christ.
Do you feel spiritually attacked after not reading your Bible for a few days? Then you’ve got a problem. Why? Because your basing your righteousness and relationship with God upon your performance (you see reading your Bible as “doing your duty”). Reading your Bible should never be about doing your duty or putting in your time, but about seeking to have your mind and heart renewed and transformed by the Words of God! I can tell you that it is not the fact that you’ve went a few days without reading your Bible which is allowing the spiritual attacks, it is the guilt that you feel for not reading your Bible which opens the door to the attacks.
When you go for a few days without spending time in God’s Word, you shouldn’t be feeling guilty, you should be feeling hungry. Sometimes though, we do have to “force feed” ourselves the Word to get our fires started, but even that is not the same as reading your Bible out of religious obligation.
Reading your Bible has a purpose - a VERY important purpose!! You aren’t going to become all that God has made you to be, or receive all the good things that He wants you to have, if your mind is not transformed by the Word. Reading your Bible has an important purpose, but it is not a duty or means that your relationship with God is judged by. It is what you receive out of the Word that transforms your life and takes your relationship with God to the next level.
Reading your Bible just because you feel like it’s your duty or obligation as a Christian, is a dead work. Reading your Bible because you want to receive what is written on those pages is what it’s all about.
