Reading the Bible as an analogy to food or exercise - you need it daily

The Bible is like spiritual food. We need it daily. Although I had been reading the Bible daily for years now, I didn't "see" this analogy to food or exercise until recently.

While out on a run, I contemplated how convenient it would be if I could front-end my year's exercise into a big daily run for the first 3 months and then no more exercise for the rest of the year. I realized sadly that exercise simply does not work like this, any more than food does. You can't just eat lots and lots of food early in the year and then stop eating for the rest of the year.

The Bible is exactly like food or exercise in that way. You would be hurting your own spiritual health if you just stop reading the Bible, in the same way that you'd be hurting your physical health if you stopped eating or exercising. You would still be physically alive without reading the Bible, but you would miss out on all the benefits of having your own wise counselor right there (God). You would miss out on getting to know Him better. All of those things confer a lot of benefit to you. So even from a purely selfish point of view, you'd want to read the Bible. Of course, we should also want to read the Bible because God is so amazing (look what He did for us when Jesus died on the cross!) Our sins are forgiven! How could we not want to get to know Him better? But even if we were just being selfish, it's to our benefit to read the Bible.

It's true that it takes non-zero time to read the Bible, but I have found that being able to access God's wisdom that way actually saves me time by giving me better discernment. I feel like I know better what to do in a particular situation if I'm reading the Bible, versus years prior when I was not reading it regularly. This means a lot less time wasted on doing things that are unnecessary or things that won't actually help the situation I'm grappling with. 

So the Bible is like food. You do actually need it daily, even if it doesn't always feel like this to you.

If you found this post interesting, you may also like these related posts on this blog:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Do Atheists Shout So Loudly When They Believe the Stakes are Lower?

When it comes to religious matters, we Christians believe our very souls are at stake.  Atheists do not believe there is anything so serious at stake.  Anyone would therefore expect that Christians would shout their message the loudest, since they believe there is the most at stake.  However, it seems that both 'shout' similarly loudly.  Why is that?    Both camps genuinely believe that their version is the underlying truth (although of course, both cannot be right).  Therefore, both camps have the truth at stake; they think of themselves as campaigners for the truth.  In addition, Christians believe our souls are at stake.  Why then do atheists shout so loud when they believe there is less at stake?   This is a question which is difficult to answer.  However, we should be aware that Christianity can actually benefit from these loud shoutings of the atheists.  Why is that? It is because the atheists give us specific things to refute. Much more dangerous for Christianity i
Read more

Organized religion and why it is important

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints All too frequently, organized religion (i.e. a church) can seem pointless and boring.  I certainly found it this way before I started reading the Bible.  Often, the lack of interest in church may be caused by one of two main things: 1. The person has had a bad experience previously in organized religion 2. The person feels uncomfortable about realizing that they are a sinner In the case of the first problem, it is quite possible that differences in Christian denominations has confused the person.  It is confusing!  It is important to go to a church whose teachings are in line with the Bible.  Identifying such a church oneself does require a) attending a church and b) reading the Bible. In the case of the second problem, that isn't actually a problem at all for attending church.  All of us are sinners.  It is as simple as that. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 Organized relig
Read more

Do You Expect God to Match Up With YOUR Specifications?

"God isn't real if I don't believe in him" "I can't believe in a God who lets X or Y happen" The above are sentences which are heard frequently.  Curiously, these people seem to think that if God doesn't match up to THEIR specifications, He can't be real.  I think the root of this is the lack of ability we humans have to 'prove' or see the existence of God (or from the opposing viewpoint, to prove a lack of existence). The difficulty with which we can detect spiritual things compared to the ease with which we can detect the physical world makes it very easy for us to think we make the rules and that if God doesn't appear to follow 'our' rules (expectations), He can't be real. Consider a hypothetical creature of spirit visiting Earth for the first time.  This creature has no way of directly measuring anything physical.  Although unable to sense gravity itself, it realizes from reading minds that humans have measured
Read more