Seize the Summer: Removing Barriers (part 2)featured

This is the second post in a series. See the first one here.

I call this group of barriers: Disobedient, Undisciplined and/or Feeling Crazy:
“I know I should, I just don’t.”
“I don’t have time.”
“I’m not a learner, not a morning person, not…”

Before you think I’m being harsh, let’s start with the practical reality: life consists of seasons. There may be a season when you have hours every day to spend reading and studying and enjoying Jesus. And then there are the seasons where you’re so busy you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth in the morning. Scripture does not give us a formula for a right amount of time spent in the Word. This is not meant to be a big guilt trip.

With that said, we are called to be disciples first and foremost. For some of us, the problem is not that we are too busy, it’s that we are not loving God as we ought. We are being disobedient.

So how do we overcome these barriers?

First, we must repent of the sin of not loving God fully and believe the Gospel.

Here’s the beauty of the Gospel: it’s for sinners! And we are all sinners. So we are free to be transparent. I don’t have to make excuses, I can just be honest: I don’t love God as much as I should. I need Jesus. When we’re willing to be transparent like this—when we’re willing to face our sinfulness instead of hiding and skirting around it–we’ll truly experience grace. When we see our great need, we will see God’s great love.

We are incapable of fulfilling the command to love God perfectly. But Christ took our failures upon Himself and paid their penalty on the cross. If you have put your faith in Him, His record of righteousness is yours. And because of that, we are enabled to love God. 1 John says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (emphasis mine). So now we can come to him freely and sit at his feet, not to prove our dedication, but because He has proven His.

So we confess our failure to love. We see our desperate need for forgiveness and we rejoice that God provides it richly through Christ.

And then we obey in faith.

As we grow in love for God as He is revealed in Christ, we grow in our desire to know him more and more. But that desire takes time, and many of us are waiting until we “feel like it,” when the reality is, we just need to do it.

This is not legalism! Barbara Hughes explains the difference between discipline and legalism like this:

True discipline is a far cry from legalism—thank God! The difference lies in the motivation: Legalism is self-centered; discipline is God-centered. The legalistic heart says, ‘I will do this thing to gain merit with God.’ The disciplined heart says, ‘I will do this because I love God and want to please Him.’ The true heart of discipline is relationship—a relationship with God.

It requires discipline to obey. It might mean doing something you don’t feel like doing until God changes your heart and you actually feel like it. That could take a few weeks; it could take years. That’s why we obey in faith—we have faith that the God who began a good work in us will finish what He started.

So now let’s go back to those practical realities. Sometimes it’s not a sinful neglect of God’s Word, sometimes it’s just where we are in life.

Here we must embrace the season we’re in and do what we can.

The reality is, we have to re-learn how to walk with Jesus in every season. Two years ago, when I was home with a baby and two toddlers, my capacity for spending focused time in the Word was far different than it is now. Now I sleep through the night (it really happens!) and if I don’t get out of bed before them, I can persuade my children to play together for a little while (or at least watch some TV) so I can get a quiet time (and maybe even a shower!). For every season, there is grace upon grace.

I’ll close with two suggestions for those who might find themselves in a season where time in the Word seems like an impossibility:

1. Set up accountability.

If you are married, ask your husband to help you fight for time in Scripture.

Back when I was drowning in toddler needs, I asked my husband if he would do breakfast without me. So began a morning rhythm where he snags some quality time with our kiddos and I’m allowed a few extra moments for a quiet time. But here’s the thing: when I applauded him the other day for so generously giving me this time, he reminded me that I asked him for it. It’s not that he was giving it reluctantly, he just acknowledged that it might not have otherwise occurred to him. It’s okay to ask for help. It may not look like it does for us; maybe your work schedules are different or you need all-hands-on-deck at the breakfast table. But is there one night each week you could set aside to go be alone with your Bible? How could you fight for that for each other?

If small children are not the barrier, or a husband is not built-in accountability, is there a friend you could ask for help? Could you start asking each other at your MC dinner, “What are you reading right now? How’s your time in the Word?” Sometimes just knowing someone will ask what we’re learning is enough to help us grow in discipline.

2. Tie Scripture intake to regular activities.

Read your Bible aloud with your kids at the breakfast table. Listen to it while you walk your dog. Put notecards by your kitchen sink or in your car. Keep a Bible open on the counter to a passage you can meditate on throughout the day. Hang a passage in your shower to work on memorizing. There are many ways we can work Scripture intake into our daily rhythms, and as we tie them to the mundane things we always do, they’ll become habits too.

Time in the Word is worth fighting for, when we don’t feel like it, and when we feel like we’re losing our minds.