15 Minutes a Day Can Change Your Life
Sitting in my office a few days ago, I was in the presence of three men with whom I’ve shared my life over the past three and a half years. We’ve opened up our lives to each other, exhorted each other, and encouraged each other through some very challenging times. They are simultaneously friends and brothers. When we meet, we open the Word and discuss it, and attempt to understand it and apply it to our lives. But our last discussion was one that was a bit surprising. We are all committed to leading godly lives, lives that are focused on honoring Christ and loving the people God has allowed into our lives. In the context of these aspirations, we also attempt to work, recreate, parent (or in my case, grandparent… if that’s even a verb!), and be great spouses. As we were doing our spiritual inventory, it became clear that the one thing that gets put on the back burner is the very thing that we meet to do: Learn from Scripture by reading Scripture. We were all surprised that one of the basic building blocks of our faith was so easily neglected.
So this is what we challenged each other to do… In this season of Lent, where the focus tends to be on giving things up, we committed to each other that we will find a fixed point time to spend at least 15 minutes in reading the Word. And we promised to hold each other accountable to this commitment.
Later that day, I was in conversation with a man who was in the process of reinvigorating his faith. He had spent the last several years of his life in a spiritual limbo, observing the spiritual growth of his wife and children, feeling like he was indeed missing something. We are in the early stages of our interaction, but what he said was encouraging to me and motivating to him. He committed himself to daily reading of Scripture with his wife. Nothing dramatic or profound, just a steady commitment to open God’s Word. His comment concerning this activity was simple but profound: “You know, just reading the Bible is helping me feel move connected to God than I’ve ever felt.”
If you’re reading this blog, you are most likely like me. You know this to be true, and many of you have probably known it for years. So this is the question I asked myself and I’m asking you… If I know this is true, why is my time reading and hearing what God says not one of my top priorities?
So let’s give God 15 minutes a day, and let’s let nothing interfere with that time. This would make a perfect Lenten activity, and hopefully it will set a precedent for the rest of our lives.
Looking for a Lent study guide? Check out our list of recommended resources here.