John 15:1-8 TLV “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He trims so that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me. ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and is dried up. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.”

“If you aren’t learning, you aren’t growing. If you aren’t growing, you will become stagnant, and if you become stagnant you will die spiritually.”
– Pastor Barry Stephens

Looking back at this quote, I am reminded of how important it is to abide in Christ. We abide in Christ by abiding in His Word. In this morning’s devotional, I talked about how Psalm 119 helps us to understand the importance of the Scripture in our lives. Daily Bible reading is not a chore; it’s not a to-do list item, it is an absolute necessity. It’s time we quit speaking of daily time in the Word as something God understands if we miss; after all, God knows how busy we are. This is the worst mentality a Christian can have.

Jesus repeated the words of Deuteronomy when He said, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The truth is, if you are not in the Word every day, you are not abiding in Him. This is not condemnation, and it isn’t legalism. The Word is our very source of life. If we don’t miss a physical meal, we need to ask ourselves why it’s so easy for us to go days without reading the Bible. That is a serious question with serious implications for our spiritual life.

If you can go days without reading the Bible and you don’t even miss it, you need to find out why. If you don’t have a desire for the Word of God, that indicates a spiritual problem. Pray and ask God to give you a desire for the Word. Get a Bible study guide or read a book that will cause you to study the Scripture.

SCRIPTURES TO MOTIVATE YOU IN BIBLE READING AND STUDY:

Joshua 1:8, Psalm 119, Proverbs 3 and 4, Mark 4, John 15, Acts 2, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 1, 1 Peter 1:22-25, and 2 Peter.