Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Bible Reading | Habits

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in 2023. Get your FREE reading plan here. What do you spend the majority of your time doing? What makes it hard for you to read the Bible? Are you too busy to read the Bible? In today's episode, Patrick discusses the importance of having a habit of reading the Bible and how to create a schedule to do so. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. We're about to enter the new year, and that's why we're going through a short little series on habits, habits that we think will actually improve your life because they draw you closer to the one who has life, Jesus. And perhaps one of the most important habits that we could ever talk about is what this entire podcast is all about, reading the Bible, understanding God's Word. Now the truth is, I think a lot of people listening to this and plenty of people who aren't listening to this want to spend more time in their Bibles. In 2023, I think most Christians would say, I want this to be the year where I really commit my

life to reading God's word. But when I ask people, what's stopping you from getting time with God? The answer is usually the same. I'm just busy. I feel like I don't have the time. But I wonder if that's really true. I mean, finding time is more complex than solving a scheduling issue. Let me give you an example. What if I told you that I knew the secret to reading 200 books a year? I mean, lots of people would like to read 200 books a year. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 words. So 200 books is about 10 million words, which would take the average American about 515 hours to read. Okay, you're like, so what? I don't have an extra 515 hours to spare. So how could I I ever read 200 books. We'll stop and think about this. The average American also spends

1,642 hours a year watching TV and 608 hours a year on social media. My friends and I looked at our phones and we realized that we spend an average of 819 hours a year just looking at our phones. So here's the secret to reading 200 books a year. Watch 30% less TV. Or spend 85% less time on social media or spend 63% less time on your phone. In reality, none of these things are hard. So why don't we do it? Why don't we all read 200 books a year? Well, it's because it's not a time issue. It's not a scheduling issue. We do have the time. It's a priority issue. You need to love reading more than you love TV or social media or your phone. And the truth is, most of us don't love reading more than that. Now, stop and think about this. Reading your

Bible, just 15 minutes a day, five days a week, takes about 65 hours a year. That's 4% of the time we spend watching TV. 8% of the time we spend looking at our phones. 10% of the time we spend on social media. So is time really the problem? Is scheduling really the problem? Can we just be honest for a second? The reason why many of us don't have a habit of reading the Bible isn't because we have a serious scheduling issue or serious time issue. The reason we don't read our book, Bible is because we don't love it enough. In a real kind of sad way, if we were being honest, we love TV more than we love the Bible. We love social media more than we love the Bible. We love our phones more than we love the Bible. There's lots of things that we simply love

more than the Bible. That means that if you want to create a habit of being in the Bible, the solution isn't just setting up a schedule. Now, I'm not saying that's not important. Having a schedule and a time, that's really important, but I don't think it's the most fundamental solution. To read the Bible, we need to find our love for the Bible. And to find our love for the Bible, we need to understand why we want to read it. You see, you won't love something if you don't understand why you want it. This hit home to me a few years ago when I was spending time with a guy who went through a really kind of sudden, sad divorce. His wife had abandoned him. And he would be the first person to say that it was some of his own decisions that caused that. And at the time,

he wasn't really a Christian, he wasn't really walking with Jesus, but in the midst of all the hurt and pain that came from his marriage breaking apart, he realized he needed something different in his life. And so we're meeting up and I tell him, hey, I think what you need is God. And the one place that God speaks most clearly, the one place where God is most present is in the Bible. So why don't you try doing that? Why don't you try reading your Bible? I think two weeks passed, we got together again. And so I asked him, hey, how's it going? How's Bible reading? He looks at me and he says, I read it. I go, what?

You read it? Like you read a book of the Bible? He goes, oh, no, I read the entire Bible from cover to cover. He told me that when he opened up God's Word, it not only spoke to him. He felt this deep hunger because in God's Word, he found God himself. You see, the pain of his marriage showed him his why. He was empty. He was lost.

He needed guidance. And he knew that the best place to get that was the Bible. And because of that, he had a hunger for. for the Bible. He had so much hunger that he read the whole thing in two weeks. I will probably never read my Bible in two weeks. You probably won't ever do it. But the point is there. He found his why. Do you have a why? Do you have a deep sense of hunger? A deep sense of longing for God and his word? You see, the true answer is that you do. The problem is that sometimes it's hard to see. But I'm telling you, you do. You have a hunger. Every person who's sucked into an endless

social media scroll, that person is looking for God. Every person who's online shopping for hours on end, what you're really looking for is God. Every person who turns to alcohol or marijuana every night to dampen what they're feeling, that person is looking for God. Every person looking at pornography is looking for God. Every person obsessed with their romance is looking for God. Every person binging Netflix is looking for God. Every person playing video games to exhaustion is looking for God. Every person who's seeking the perfect body at the gym is looking for God. Every person dying for the next promotion is looking for God. Every person who's a helicopter parent trying to make sure everything goes right for their kids, they're looking for God.

You see, we're all hungry for God. We just try to fill that hunger with all sorts of wild things in our life. So in 2023, if you want to have a hunger for God's word, if you want to love God's word more than the other things in your life, you're going to have to realize the way you're to satiate your hunger, satiate your need for God in other places. I want to end this by just speaking to the things I think you're hungry for, for the things I think you long for. And I want you to see how the Bible satisfies that hunger. And I hope that in one of these verses I'm about to read, you'll find your why. Why do I want to read God's word? Why do I want to fall in love with God's word? Are you hungry for energy after a long day? Well, check out Psalm 197. The law of the Lord is

perfect, reviving the soul. God can fill your hunger for energy. Are you hungry for guidance? Well, that same Psalm continues, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise simple. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. God can guide you in His word. If you're looking for his guidance, if you're looking to know what's next, get a hunger for God's word because he can satisfy that there. But maybe you're just hungry for happiness and joy. check this out. This is in the same passage. The precepts of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart. God can give you joy in his word. Are you hungry for a purpose that will outlast time? The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Are you hungry for truth and justice?

The rules of the Lord are true and just altogether. If you want 2023 to be different, find where your soul is hungry and take that part of yourself to Jesus. He will feed you with the only thing that satisfies. And when you know your why, you will come to love His Word. Thanks so much for listening. Before you hop off, let me tell you something I'm really excited about for 2023. We are going to be going through the entire New Testament on 10-minute Bible talks. We think this is a great opportunity for you to get to know your Bible better and invite a friend to do it with you.

Maybe there's someone in your life who you know wants to spend more time in the Bible, but has a hard time getting it started. or knowing where to start. We're going to guide you through the whole thing. Imagine one year you get through the whole New Testament. You understand it better. You love Jesus more. That's our goal. I hope you'll join the journey with us.