Shrode at the Thinklings posted twice this month (here and indirectly here) about having daily quiet times. I agree with him on the importance of a consistent time with God, both in prayer and Bible study. Acts 2:42 says that the first Christians were devoted to 4 things, and prayer and the scriptures (if you interpret the 'apostles teachings' as scripture) were two of them. Frankly, it's all too easy for me to get independent and self-reliant and start skipping or abbreviating my quiet times. Prayer time comes much easier for me. I've just never been a bookworm, and reading my Bible is no exception. If you visit here regularly, you know I've been posting my notes from my Bible studies. You can visit here and see that I've been less than regular in that. It's a constant challenge for me, but one I will continue to try to rise to.
Taking Shrode's words as a starting point, I wanted to comment here on the idea that it must be daily. I hear that from nearly every Christian who speaks of it. To challenge it seems almost sacrilege. Frankly, in my 15 years as a disciple, it caused me a bit of grief and guilt. When I'd miss a day of Bible reading, I felt less a Christian. If I didn't pray enough, I felt less a Christian. To some degree, my Bible study was out of obligation, not desire to learn and know God.
To cut to the chase, I think we place too much emphasis on the 'daily'. There are many of folks like me who aren't readers. We risk damaging those folks by criticizing them for not reading daily. A commitment to the Bible isn't a commitment to a schedule. Frankly, in recent years as I've realized that missing a day or too doesn't necessarily say anything about my commitment to the scriptures. There was a time as I came to that realization that I swung the other way and didn't read much at all. Since then, however, my desire to read has actually grown. It's now about me learning about God not punching my spiritual time clock.
Most of the Christians of the first century (and probably many centuries after) actually couldn't read and there was no Bible or scroll available to them. A select few had them and could read and I imagine that the others cherished every bit of time they could spend at those men's feet listening to God's word.
We need to resist the temptation to put quantifiable measures on one's spirituality or commitment. (To be fair to Shrode, he wasn't saying that we can or should do that. His main point was only that we commit to read, among other things.) Not that we shouldn't talk about how much we read or what we're learning, but it's just not as simple as daily or not, it takes knowing someone to make a comment on their commitment to scripture. Some will take this freedom and abuse it, saying they don't have to read and so don't ask them to, but those folks aren't really interested in a commitment to the Bible anyway. But I think there are plenty of committed, sincere disciples who just don't read every day.
I have to agree with you. But I may be a bit biased, since I can't remember the last time I even opened the bible, let alone read it contemplatively. I think there are seasons in your life (or at least mine) where God speaks through the Text, and there are seasons when he speaks through life, and there are seasons when he doesn't seem to speak at all. It's hard to keep listening when you don't hear his voice for a long time, and that was my experience with the text, at least recently. I should return to it, because seasons change.
It's easy for me to get into bible study, but taking time for prayer life is what's hard for me.
Hi Salguod, What you are struggling with here is something that I also had to work through. Mainly because of my health. THen I came to the conclusion that as a child of God, we live a life of faith and grace. I know of a brother who has a high leadership position, who confessed to me one time something that concerned me greatly. But, it really opened my eyes to my own convictions. He had mentioned that while he was on vacation, he went two or three days without his quite time, and it effected him. He continued to say that he struggled with sin more, and became depressed. I couldn't beleive my ears. But it made me realize one of the core problems with teaching that not having a daily qt is a sin of ommission. Emotional dependance on performance. Faith produces works. However, when we are dependent on works to measure our faith, we allow emotions to produce works. Huh? Let me try to explain more. Any relationship includes emotions. Granted. We as emotional persons tend to let our lives affect us emotionally. WHen we beleive that we are letting God down by not having a qt, and make him happy when we have one consistantly, we respond emotionally. As a byproduct, we place emotions on God, that we have no scripural basis for. THen, we become emotionally dependent on works, for we beleive our works please God. When in fact, it's faith. If we do anything without faith, we sin, and don't please God. Teaching that you must pray and read your bible and invite people to church and call your discipler everyday in order to please God, we set ourselves up for failure and sin. NOt that not doing these things are sin, but betraying our faith is. THe Master says his yoke is light, and that the pharasis (sp?) put heavy burdens on people. The bible doesn't teach a demand on daily prayer and bible study. YOu make a good point on the OG brothers and sisters not having contact with the scriptures on a daily basis. Lets take a deaper look at our Biblical heroes. How many interactions did the father of faith (of which we are a byproduct) Abraham. I count around a dozen. That's all the bible records. 12 times he and the Lord interacted. Yet his faith was enough to birth the faith of every person in the history of Mankind since his life. He simply believed God. I think something I did for years was read the scriptures everyday, but rarely did any of it really stick. I mean really life changing stick. The word should have a major impact on us. But that doesn't happen. What if we only had the bible read to us one time? What would happen to us then? We would have to live on faith and faith alone. Will it produce works? Yes. ANd it should. In Romans 12:1 it teaches that offering our bodies to the Master is our spiritual act of worship "holy and pleasing to God". Doesn't that say it all? Let what you do as a person please God. How you interact, how you make decisions, how you think and feel. How you treat your wife, kids, neighbors, etc. When our life is an offering (living in faith) we do away with the legalistic pretense that so many of the demands you perceive to be true. I could go on, but it's getting really late and I feel like I'm rambling. I have a lot to say on this topic. I guess a good sumation would be, God loves you a whole lot more than your heart and life will ever measure up to, so do what you do in faith and love. Grace is much greater than what we can concieve. Love and beleive GOd, and you'll be fine.