I feel really good about today's workout. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm not where I used to be.
But as satisfying as a good workout is, nothing can match the time I spend with the Lord each and every morning. What would happen if I told you that you could have a half hour appointment with Jesus Christ? Suppose I told you that he'd be very glad to meet with you personally to have a 30-minute counseling session with him concerning your needs? You could talk to him about any subject you wanted to. He is going to be available to you for personal counseling! How many of you would rush to clear your calendar so that you could be right there for your appointment? Wouldn't we all like to be where we could spend a half hour with Jesus in person?
May I suggest something? May I suggest that you start thinking about reading your Bible as being a personal counseling session with Jesus Christ? Every need you have in your life finds an answer wrapped up in the pages of that book! There are so many who don't believe that. They don't read God's word and so they don't know what God has to say to them. God tells each of us how to have an exciting Christian life -- if we will just open the book and hear what he's got to say.
From the time I was 16, God instilled in me an insatiable desire to read his word. My Bible was the newly published Good News for Modern Man translation.
I could not put it down. I read the Bible like they were going to take it away from me the next day. I literally chewed up God's word. I still do. I just devour it. Everywhere I go I have a Bible with me so I could open it and see what God is saying to me.
The most neglected area in the lives of defeated Christians is Bible reading. This should be the most exciting part of our day, better even than a great workout. I guarantee that if you read the Bible, Jesus and Paul and Peter and John and James will come alive and romp around in your heart. Don't tell me you don't have time, because nobody "has" time. You make time. Most books of the New Testament can be read in less time than it takes to watch the evening news. When you read your Bible, get your pen out because you're going to run across something good -- real good. You should see the places in my Bible where I have scribbled all over the place. This means God has really spoken to me in those places.
Father, may each of us who knows you have a renewed determination to spend more time in your love letter, the Bible. Thank you for what you're doing in the heart of every person who reads your word! Amen.