During a busy week or day, I find myself in a constant state of going and doing. As much as I hate to say it, I limit my time with God and His Word to a few moments or just straight up forget to study the Word completely. The last two weeks in particular have shown me not only how important it is to be in the Word daily, but that doing so can actually make life go smoother. It sounds almost counterproductive or paradoxical that adding something to your already busy schedule can make the day easier. The following is a compilation of concepts that I have had to learn and try to apply to my life over the past few weeks. Hopefully some of these can resonate with you.

IT IS OKAY TO TAKE TIME AWAY FROM DOING WORK TO SPEND TIME WITH GOD. I have had to constantly remind myself of this reality. It seems like a duh statement, but I think a lot of people need to understand this. Yes, spending time with God takes TIME. A lot of times, I have talked myself out of having a quiet time because of the whole time-issue. For some reason, I can feel guilty about taking time away from school work to be with God.

CHECK YOUR PRIORITES. “I don’t have the time today. I’ll just do a little extra Bible reading tomorrow” (because that’s going to make things better). I say this about a lot of things, but somehow I always make time to do the things I really want to do. Somehow there is always time to get most of my homework done isn’t there. And scroll through Facebook updates and Instagram posts a few times. Where your time is spend reveals what your priorities are, and the realization of what mine priorities were stung. It was incredibly convicting that I had time to watch cat videos on social media and “did not have time” to read my Bible and pray

IT’S OKAY TO MOVE SLOWLY. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea stuck in my head that I had to read a certain length of Bible passage a day. Like I was required to check off a certain number of verses read each day. I am not sure where this idea came from but it is not true. I have been trying to read and study a chapter a day. The problem was not that I did not have enough time to get through a chapter; the problem was that I had just enough time to rush through a chapter in the Word. Studying scripture is definitely one of those “quality over quantity” situations. I have learned over the past few weeks that it is okay to go slowly through scripture. God does not require a certain number of verses to be read every day. He just wants us to spend time growing with Him. It is better to only read one verse and thoroughly study it than it is to just skim a whole chapter. The Word of God is so deep and requires time to understand. Also, just skimming the Word is not going to help you grow. The only way we can grow through Bible study is by allowing the words to fully resonate in our minds and hearts.

BIBLE STUDY IS NOT A DUTY. I have not openly thought of reading scripture as a requirement or something I was being forced to do, but that was how I was treating it. Something that has been an increasing real is what a privilege it is to be able to study scripture. Not only on the level of other people round the world not getting the opportunity but also just the simple yet incredible fact that the God of the universe chose to speak to us. Studying the Word of God is not a “have to” it is a “get to”. I do not have to study scripture, but I actually get to read and hear the actual words of God. That is such an incredible opportunity which I have not treated correctly.