For The Girl Struggling With Consistently Reading Her Bible

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. – James 4:8

Last night I was talking to some of my friends about how I hadn’t been as consistent in reading my Bible lately as I would like. I admitted I had been operating under the rule that if I didn’t have at least an hour to sit down and really dig into Scripture, I might as well not read anything at all.

My friends were not only very gracious with me as I shared with them, but they opened up and said they’d been struggling with the same thing.

As we were talking, my friend Johnna shared something that really hit home for me. She said:

“If I ask one of my friends to go hang out at a coffee shop for a couple of hours to catch up, and she says she can’t, but she can call me and talk on the phone for 20 minutes, of course I want her to call me. I wouldn’t have an all-or-nothing mindset about talking to my friend. The point is I want to talk to her. So if today we can only talk on the phone for 20 minutes, but then we can get coffee together tomorrow, that’s fine! So why is it that we treat our relationship with God differently? Why do we assume that if we can’t carve out a big chunk of time with Him, we might as well not talk to Him at all?”

Johnna’s analogy was a powerful one. And it was a reminder I desperately needed.

It was time for me to take the pressure off myself and stop having an all-or-nothing mentality about my time with Jesus.

If today I have 20 minutes to read my Bible, I should take it, rather than just throw in the towel and say I’ll try again tomorrow.

I have no doubt that God can do more in our hearts in those 20 minutes than we could ever hope, think, ask, or imagine. He’s always ready and waiting to talk to us, to hear from us, and to spend quality time with us.

So friend, if you’re struggling with spending consistent time in God’s Word, I hope you know that you’re not alone. And I also hope you know that it’s not an all-or-nothing kind of thing. If you have an hour today, great! Spend time in the Word for an hour! If you have less than an hour, that’s fine! Don’t beat yourself up. Get into the Word anyway.

The important thing is that you’re spending time with Jesus. That’s going to look different from day to day, just like it would in any other friendship. And that’s okay. The pressure’s off friend. Take a breath. Open your Bible, and spend time with Jesus today, even if it’s only for 20 minutes.