It's clear we're commanded to spend time with God and neglect that as sin. But the other side of the maybe part of it is that if God wanted it to be a rule, he would have made it a rule. We are talking about wisdom and its application.
When somebody says there's no rule about this, you say, okay, what's driving you not to do it? What are the ways that you're spending time with God? It's like any other relationship. It won't go anywhere if you're not investing time in it.
What gets you first and your best every day? Who do you talk to every day? What do you do every day? If God is not a part of that, what does that say about you, your priorities, and the weight you give God in your heart? This leads me to something pretty important, particularly for people with personalities like mine, type A. It becomes something you check off on a list, more about a spiritual discipline, or sometimes just gaining knowledge.
Reading the Bible will help you learn more about God and biblical history, making you more biblically literate. It is a good thing to do every day. We are commanded to hide his word in our hearts.
We imitate Jesus when we do it, but the question is, why are we doing it? The number one goal of Bible reading is not Bible knowledge; it's to know God. I learned this from my dad, who doesn't have a PhD in theology, and he's never been a professional pastor or minister, just a layman. He talked about when he began to build into his life the discipline of meeting with God every day because he sensed the Holy Spirit saying, "I want to meet with you. You need to know more about me, and I want to meet with you. When you don't take time in the day to meet with me, I miss that time with you. This is why I saved you: for this kind of relationship."
When you read the Bible, you have to ask, why am I doing it? Is it to know God more? Because all the Bible reading in the world without it is useless. The flip side is if you're trying to know God without reading his word, you'll never get anywhere.
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Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.
"Editor's Note: Pastor JD Greear's "Ask the Pastor" column regularly appears at Christianity.com, providing biblical, relatable, and reliable answers to your everyday questions about faith and life. Email him your questions at [email protected]."
