Darn it, Read Your Bibles!

Verse: John 15:4-5

Written by: Wyatt Drost

It was a few years ago now that my faith journey took its first major hit….

Life wasn’t going how I wanted it to. My plans were failing, shoot even my back up plans were failing! At the time it just left me feeling like a failure. But what I didn’t realize then that I know now is that my faith was being tested and refined. Instead of looking to God in this season, I was being sucked under by darkness and despair, and slowly retreating back to my old ways of living for myself and absent of God. 

His plans no longer seemed desirable to me in comparison to worldly ways that seemed to get people what they wanted a whole lot faster than God was getting me there. If it weren’t for my wife and her strong faith, I know, without a doubt I would have been sucked back into a way of living that I had previously worked really hard to be free from. 

It was in the midst of this season a few years ago that she bluntly asked me, “How dusty is that bible of yours?” My response came quickly and honestly, “pretty dusty…” her response called me to action, “maybe you should do something about that.” 

So I did, I picked up that dusty bible and quickly realized how much my life had been lacking apart from God. It didn’t last though, I was halfway through Romans when life struck again. A car accident, another move, another job opportunity that didn’t go as I had planned, and more defeat and discouragement. What felt like a never ending season of trials was drawing my wife closer to God, while it was pushing me further away. 

I was letting her carry the load of leading our children and our home, hoping I could piggy back off of her growing faith. I was waiting for someone else to do the work for me, instead of being a man who steps up and spiritually leads his family. The lessons I’ve been learning in spiritual leadership will be a post I plan to share in the future, but it’s important to note that it was largely my laziness in leadership that kept me stuck where I was as a complacent Christian. 

You know, the Christian who says they put their faith in Jesus, that they believe in God, and show up to do the church thing on Sunday, but they walk back out those doors with zero heart change or transformation. One whose life doesn’t bear the fruit Paul talks about in Galatians 5. All because I wasn’t putting in the work to remain in him like Jesus tells us to do in John 15.

^” Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:4-5

I wasn’t being the man God had made me to be, I knew that just as much as my wife and close friends did, but I just couldn’t snap out of my funk. Until one day, thanks to the Holy Spirit, I did.

My conviction from God was simple… I needed to read my bible more.

It wasn’t a new conviction for me. It was something that I felt the urgency to do quite often, but I just couldn’t seem to stick to it and couldn’t figure out why. 

But looking back from where I am now in my walk, I truly believe it boiled down to one thing. 

I lacked discipline. 

Period. 

Plain and simple.

We can find any excuse to not read our bibles. Trust me, I had a whole list of my own for far too long. You can call it a lack of motivation, you can convince yourself that you can’t find the right time, that your season of life is just too busy. Maybe you’ve convinced yourself it’s too difficult to understand, or that you don’t know where to start, or that a sermon on Sunday where your pastor teaches on a few verses is enough…  

But men, we have to be on guard! The enemy puts distraction and temptation directly and strategically in front of us to cause idleness, discontentment, complacency, and to get us to blatantly walk in sin. 

Go read Ephesians 6… We must put on the full armor of God at all times, or we can easily fall victim to his lies. Our greatest weapon against the enemy and against complacency as a Christian is God’s word. 

But in order to use it, we actually need to know it! 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

This is the tool I’m learning to use again, and this is the “secret” to why things finally changed for me and for the state of my home. 

Truthfully, if you’re going more than a day or two without reading your bible, whatever excuse you might have, it really isn’t valid. If you’re claiming Jesus as your Lord and savior, and you’ve put your faith and trust in him, you have zero excuse to not be growing more spiritually mature through the practice of reading your bible. 

Harsh? Maybe, but did Jesus ever hold back the truth because he was too worried that God’s word would offend someone? I don’t think so.

Look at how he spoke to the Pharisees. He rebuked them and told them truths that challenged their perspective, their belief system, their way of doing things apart from him. 

He rocked their boat and they didn’t like it. Did we forget why they wanted to kill him?

Look at Hebrews 5:11-14. This teaching really calls out the complacent christian looking at living life by their terms. They’ve gotten their “get out of jail free card” by their salvation and that’s as far as they go. No desire to grow spiritually, or live life differently than they did before Christ. 

Let’s try this on for size…If you’re truly saved by faith, and your heart has been changed by the Lord, then it’s going to show by the works that you do. You’re not saved by your works, but your works show whether your heart has truly been transformed or not. 

Anyone telling you otherwise is simply telling a lie, and it’s coming straight from the enemy to keep you complacent and in sin. 

Reading your bible is a spiritual discipline for a reason! It actually takes effort and action on your part! You might even have to give something up that’s a worldly comfort in order to prioritize growing closer to God. 

Maybe that’s waking up earlier, or grabbing your bible instead of your phone first thing in the morning, on your lunch break, before you go to bed in the evening, or even in the bathroom. You have time and will make time if it’s a priority, and the Lord will meet you where you are. 

Remember the whole ask, seek, knock? 

Ask him to give you a hunger for his word. Seek growth and wisdom and he will provide it. Knock on his door for opportunities and he will open them for you. 

If the Spirit is dwelling within you, reading your bible will be a continual conviction that you receive because the Spirit is a part of the God head. Therefore, He’s also God. 

He wants us to know him and his character. He wants to have a relationship with us and that’s largely going to be accomplished through meditating over and prayerfully studying his word. The last time I checked, actually spending time with someone is a pretty vital piece to having a healthy relationship with them. 

So why would we expect to remain close to God and be able to abide in him if we aren’t taking the time to be with him in his word?

A somewhat recent study found that reading your bible 3 or fewer days a week had zero impact in people’s lives. But when you cross the threshold of reading 4 or more days a week, your life begins to change exponentially! 

I’m a living breathing testimony of these study results! My wife and my close community in Christ have continually affirmed the positive changes in me… The way I’ve carried my burdens differently. The way I’ve viewed every aspect of our life with true delight and gratitude. The way I face trials from a position of humility and faith, instead of growing impatient and discouraged when things don’t go my way. The way I am growing more spiritually mature and walking more confidently and more boldly as a son of God. 

My whole being is different, so what changed?

Reading my bible has changed the lens I see life through, taking it from my own lens to a biblical world view. 

Only God can change a heart, but we can certainly get in his way when we fail to live humbly and obediently for him. 

God isn’t going to do it all for you, just like he didn’t for me. I had to do my part and put in the work that he asked me to do. 

So men, knock the dust off of those bibles and wear out that binding. 

Dive into God’s living word, meditate on what it says, and let him transform you and your family for the better. 

I pray that each and every one of you would walk in discipline and obedience to the Lord, so that you may experience the heart change and family transformation that I have. All because I finally picked up my bible again. 

Let’s get after it! Your heart, and the hearts of your family are depending on it.

Psalm 119:105 ESV 

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV 

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Psalm 119:11 ESV 

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

James 1:22 ESV 

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

Matthew 4:4 ESV

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

John 1:1 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.