Before it gets much later in January...

Before we get any further into January, I want to make one last effort to encourage you to use a Bible reading plan to read through all or part of the Bible this year. I am using the Discipleship Journal Bible reading plan, which has me reading in four parts of the Bible every day (well, 25 days a month). That may sound like a lot – 4-7 chapters a day, depending on the length of the chapters. But I can honestly say that it’s a joy to have several different ideas from God’s word put into my mind each morning.

Now…you may not think that you have time to read that much of the Bible every day. But I am surprised how little time it is taking me. This morning, it took less than half an hour. And because I’m a nerd, I was checking the Greek a few times, and then writing some things about these readings on the church’s new Bible reading blog. So it should take you even less time, even if you are reading thoughtfully (and I hope you are!), rather than just to “get through” it.

If that still sounds like a lot of time to spend reading the Bible, then we should take a look at 1 Timothy 4:6-8 to put things into perspective.

“6 In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. 7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."

There are two concepts that we should take note of here. The first is in verse 8. “Bodily discipline” (or training) is somewhat profitable. It helps us a little. But godliness is profitable for all things. Somehow, we find it easy to take care of the health of our bodies. Even if we aren’t as good about diet and exercise as we should be, we don’t completely neglect our bodies. We want to keep them in decent working order. But those efforts aren’t nearly as important – as profitable – as training for godliness. And when we train ourselves for godliness – which includes the discipline (something we make ourselves do) of regular Bible reading – we do something that isn’t just a little bit helpful, but helpful for all things. In fact, it is helpful for both the present life and the life to come!

The second thing we should notice is in verse 6. It’s the word “nourished.” Even if we don’t exercise much, we do make sure that our bodies are nourished – usually three times a day. We actually devote a lot of time to the nourishment of our bodies – not only the preparing and eating of the food, but the work to make money to buy the food too. Well, if physical training isn’t as profitable as training for godliness, do we think that physical nourishment is more profitable than spiritual nourishment? This must be why Paul spoke of being “nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine…” Do we think in terms of being nourished by words? Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sure did.

So as we consider what we think we do and don’t have time for, I want to suggest (and this challenges me too!) that if we are in the habit of being sure that our bodies our nourished by food, then we should be even more sure that our souls are nourished by God’s Word. Feeding your soul is too important to not make time for it. What will it take for you to make sure that your soul is adequately fed?

**By the way, another interesting article might be about how our bodies tell us that they are hungry so we don’t forget to feed them. But our souls don’t do this, so we might forget to feed them. Or do our souls tell us that they are hungry? Perhaps our short tempers, feelings of sadness or anxiety, lustful thoughts, etc. are the hunger pangs of souls that have not been adequately nourished. That’s something for all of us to think about.