The most significant thing a Christian can do for his/her spiritual life is read God’s Word each day. Nothing is more important in our lives than God and what he has to say to us.

God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.
John Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 174.

When we listen to God through his Word, the truths and expectations of God come alive for us. I want you to grasp this–God wants to speak to you today. He wants to have a conversation with you. It is our obligation to pause long enough to listen.

If we’re going to grow as Christians, we must listen to God’s Word.

Our study of churchgoers included the measurement of more than sixty factors characteristic of biblical spiritual development… Our statistician applied sophisticated procedures to our data to produce a rank-ordered list of correlations. The number one factor, or characteristic, most correlated to the highest maturity scores is the practice of “reading the Bible.” I almost had to laugh when I saw this. Sometimes we complicate things. The simple discipline of reading the Bible has a major impact on Christians.
Brad Waggoner, The Shape of Faith to Come (Nashville: B&H, 2008), 68.

I’ve said this over and over to my church family. If I could get church members to do just one thing it would be to read the Bible every day. Waggoner’s research affirms what I’ve seen anecdotally. I’ve watched lives change drastically simply because people began reading the Bible daily and taking Scripture seriously.

The third journey outcome in our list is about embedding God’s Word in our daily experience. I articulated this outcome beginning with the word “listen” rather than “read.” This was intentional. While we can and should take in God’s Word through reading, we ought to read it as if God is speaking to us directly.

Journey Outcome #3 – Listen to God daily through Scripture and personal worship.

God’s Word is indispensable in our Christian lives. Without it, we will drift from following God. When we think of it as merely words “about” God and not the Word “of” God, we will be tempted to change the Word of God to our bents and preferences. But when we read the Bible as the Word of God to us, with authority over us, some incredible things happen.

• We get to hear from God directly. God wants to tell us things; he wants to speak to us. But we don’t need mystical experiences in order to hear from God. We simply need to listen to God speak through his Word. When I read the Bible, especially in my devotional time, I read it to hear what God wants to tell me. I’m reading and listening for God’s Spirit to draw my attention to something I need to praise or thank God for, a sin I need to confess, a command I need to obey, an area I need to express faith, etc. When we “read” or “listen” to Scripture this way, God speaks to us.
• We get to remember and review God’s works. Having daily Scripture intake invites us to look for God in the Bible. We get to see and review who God revealed himself to be and how he intervened in the past. These remembrances invite us to praise God, thank God, and worship God. Like John Stott observed above, the Word of God leads us to personal and corporate worship.

Since you’re reading this post, let me encourage you to spend time today reading the Bible. I know many of us are busy. But if you think you’re too busy to read much of the Bible each day, just consider how much time you spend scrolling through newsfeeds, social media, or watching television. We make time for what we want to do. I encourage you to make time to be in God’s Word.

Find a Bible reading plan that invites you into Scripture daily. Here are several reading plan options:

• Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s plan that goes through the New Testament and Psalms two times a year and the Old Testament one time a year.
• Bible Gateway lists a number of reading plans.
• Begin a month by reading a Proverb a day.
• Begin reading the New Testament by reading one chapter a day.
• Get the ESV Bible App and choose a plan from the options in the app.
• Use the H.E.A.R. method to reflect on Scripture. H-highlight, E-explain, A-apply, R-respond. Using a journal pick one verse from your reading to highlight or to write out. Then explain what the verse means. Write out an application. Then pen a prayer flowing from the verse you’ve chosen. This method helps imbed Scripture in our mind and life and invites us to truly hear God speak to us.

One of my favorite people in all the world started a reading plan that let him read through the Bible one time in a year. He’s been doing the same plan for about fifteen years and says it’s the most impactful spiritual discipline he’s ever practiced. He’s not the same. God’s Word has changed him.

Having a plan will keep you on track. By reading (listening) daily, you are giving God an opportunity to speak to you every time you give attention to Scripture.

Journey Outcome #3 , listen to God daily through Scripture and personal worship, might be the most significant of all 8 outcomes we will review.

Journey Outcome # 3 significantly aids us in following Jesus. Our mission at Wilkesboro Baptist is to lead our neighbors and the nations to follow Jesus by worshiping, learning, serving, and replicating. These journey outcomes show how we’re living out our mission steps. Outcome #1, “Say or Sing Praise Today” and outcome #2, “Engage INTENTIONALLY in Gathered Worship” are about personal and corporate worship. Journey outcome number #3 is about listening to God to hear from him and to worship him.

This simple discipline invites us to follow Jesus by listening to him from his Word every day. I challenge you to make Bible reading (listening) a daily habit.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash