Before I launch into the meandering musing that is me and this blog, forgetting about any audience besides myself, let me get to the main points so you can stop here if you're just interested in the Facebook tagline for this post:
- She Reads Truth is a great devotional app. You can read all of the plans for free on the website, and you can download the app for free on your phone. Some plans are free on the phone as well, and some cost a very small amount–barely more than a song on iTunes– and I have found the $2 very much worth the convenience of being able to read the Bible and devotional on my phone during times I would have normally wasted on Facebook or Instagram. Most mornings, I read the day's Scripture and commentary on my phone while I blow-dry my hair. I don't mean to sound like the Bible isn't worth reading when it isn't convenient or like I'm advocating it being reduced to something to turn to when you're bored... just that it's great to have it right there with me all the time and that for me it's a welcome, much more fulfilling replacement to Facebook scrolling, what I used to do to begin my day.
- I am going to continue with She Reads Truth this year, reading both whatever plan is current (John, starting in January) and the read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. Each day's reading is not very long, but they are all wonderful, and my hope is that committing to the small bit of Scripture on my phone every morning will help me re-prioritize and will whet my appetite even more to turn to more Scripture and to Jesus throughout the day.
- I hope others will join me! Earlier this year, I asked on Facebook if anyone would be interested in studying the Bible together, and a few people showed some interest, though everyone of course had the caveat of being very busy. I hear you, friends. Me too. What I'm thinking, though, is that the She Reads Truth plans could be perfect for some of us who want to study together. We can all read these daily Scriptures and devotionals to keep us on track no matter how often or not we are able to meet. Maybe we could all start reading John together in January (If you start later, it's easy to catch up!), and when school starts back, we could work out a schedule to meet for dinner or coffee or at school one afternoon or at someone's house to talk about what we've experienced reading. She Reads Truth also has a comments section after every reading where people share in an online Bible study of sorts. We could use that feature or a text or email thread of our own to participate together on days we have thoughts or questions or concerns to share with one another between meetings. Even people who can't meet in person at all or can't meet consistently could still be a part that way!
- Here's a link to She Reads Truth and a link to the announcement about the Bible-in-a-year-plan:
I love that my "short" version above turned out be so long-winded. Ah well. Now... back to my heart... read on if you want...
I constantly struggle with actually reading the Bible. It is something I honestly love to do... when I do it. I could put reading the Bible on the same list with blogging, journaling, writing, praying, calling my friends and grandparents more, exercising, and reading any book that I haven't assigned myself as homework because it's essential to a lesson plan... These are the many things that I usually do not do that I need to do, not out of any sense of guilt or legalism, not to fulfill any sort of ideal of what kind of person I should be, not to meet some cliche list of New Year's resolutions, but because I want to, because I need to, because they are nourishing to who I am...
Why do I consistently not do such essential things? Because I am "busy." Read that as– because I don't prioritize well, because I am obsessed with being some kind of super freak of a teacher or something, because my days revolve around lesson plans and grades instead of Jesus. Really, what I should say there is that my days revolve around me instead of Jesus. And that is not only sad and energy-sapping, it is sin.
That's not to equate exercise or blogging or even my grandparents with Jesus (though I certainly have seen Jesus and learned so much about Him from my grandparents!), but it is to say that I know that I don't turn to Jesus consistently throughout my day, that I don't look to Him for prioritizing my time and my to-do lists. So many things that never make the top-cut on my to-do list are the very things that help me focus on Jesus. The lack of Scripture and prayer, the lack of connection in relationships, and for me because of how I was made, the lack of journaling and writing are all evidence of a lack of awareness of Jesus in my day. When I am in Him, when I trust Him with my time and my days, those are the things I am drawn into, the ways I see Him expressed and the ways I express Him in my life.
I keep returning to this passage, Jesus speaking in Matthew 6:25-33 (ESV) when I reflect on these things–
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on [nor what you will teach at school next week nor how you will find time to grade it]. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the things will be added to you."
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Seek first the kingdom.
Seek first God.
Seek first righteousness.
First.
Seek FIRST.
Seeking something so huge and so wonderful as the kingdom of God and His righteousness is much more than reading a devotional on a Bible app. I'm not pretending I'm anywhere close... but it's a step, it's a start... and I'm praying for a reworking of my priorities and my time and my heart today, this new year, and everyday.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Finally, one of my favorite Sara Groves songs and some of John 1 (ESV), one of my favorite chapters of the Bible:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
