Make Bible Reading a Priority

Is reading a necessary part of your daily schedule, or do you tend to push it off, claiming to have more important things to do?

George Mueller, after having read the Bible through one hundred times with increasing delight, said this: "I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God. Friends often say, 'I have so much to do, so many people to see, I cannot find time for Scripture study.' Perhaps there are not many who have more to do than I. For more than half a century I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 4 years I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands.

"Then, as pastor of a church with 1,200 believers, great has been my care. Besides, I have had charge of five immense orphanages; also, at my publishing depot, the printing and circulating of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles; but I have always made it a rule never to begin work until I have had a good season with God and His Word. The blessing I have received has been wonderful."

Many people think that they know all there is to know in the Bible.  I used, in my pride, to think that I myself knew all there was to know.  If Mr. Mueller read through the Bible over a hundred times and still found blessings in it daily, then I think that we are wrong in this belief.

Mueller also said this:  "It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray."

Despite his busyness, Mueller still devoted much time each day to spending in God's Word.  No matter where you are in life, I highly doubt that you are as busy as Mr. Mueller was.  If he can fit time in for the Word, than you can too.  It is just a matter of priority.  Will you choose to make Bible reading the number one priority of your day?