The Most Important Habit You Can Form

This program contains portions from the following episodes:

"Your Personal Bible Reading Challenge"

"Keeping God's Word at the Center"

"Bible Reading Drought = Big Opportunity!"

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Dannah Gresh: What would your life be like if you read the Bible every single day? Here’s Heather Patenaude. 

Heather Patenaude: If you want to see radical changes in your life, if you are tired with the way things have been year upon year upon year, get yourself into God’s Word. 

Dannah: Do you believe reading the Bible can actually transform your life? Today, we’re talking about why getting into God’s Word is so important for our lives. 

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh. 

It’s the first weekend of 2023. My guess is that you’ve made, or started on, a resolution or two for the new year. Or if you’re not a New Year’s resolution kind of person, you likely still have hopes or plans for what the year is going to look like. Maybe you have a goal you’d like to accomplish. There’s just something about a new year that feel like you're waiting to push a reset button. A new year, new motivation, fresh start, all of that. It’s a great time to evaluate our lives to think about what matters the most and prioritize those things in the coming year. And when you do it right, setting goals can be a healthy way to shape behavior for the new year ahead! I like that. Don’t you? I mean, deciding how I’m going to live rather than sliding into whatever happens is so much more fulfilling!

Of all the helpful habits or good goals, I want to talk about something that is one of the most important decisions you could make, not only for this year, but for your life. It’s something I always examine every year about this time because it impacts every other area of my life; yours too! It’s this: getting into God’s Word every day. 

The Bible isn’t just any book—it’s living and active (Heb. 4:12). It’s the Word of God which has the power to move in us and completely transform us. The more we read it, the more we love it and love God as we get to know Him better. 

Many years ago, I was challenged to develop the habit of spending one hour a day in God’s Word. I've got to tell you, it wasn’t easy at first. I looked at the clock about every ten minutes and thought, How will I ever fill the next ten minutes! But these days, I’ve learned the habit and am so fulfilled by the many rewards of this discipline that one hour is hardly ever enough. For example, one of the rewards is this: I don’t know how to say it really clearly after all these years, but my day is easier. The minutes are more fulfilling. They feel longer in a good way, like I’m able to do all that’s on my list to accomplish. I guess on the other hand, I can feel it on the days I miss time in God's Word because the days seem longer, but at the same time, they race past me without impact. 

I don't know if I'm explaining this right. Let me turn to a Proverb that says it better. In Proverbs 9, the writer is speaking of the benefit of wisdom—that’s what we get when we read our Bibles. Verse 11 reads: “For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.” I feel that almost in a minute by minute basis on the days I start in God's Word. The wisdom of God multiplies my minutes. Maybe you’ve experienced that like I have. If not, this could be the year!

Of course, you don’t have to wait until the start of a new year to create a habit of reading the Bible, but it’s as good of a time as any. Today we’re going to be reminded why getting in God’s Word is so important. 

To start us off, let’s hear from a woman named Heather. She’s sharing about the time she took a daily Bible reading challenge from Revive Our Hearts and how being in God’s Word every day affected her. Here she’s recounting the first day she sat down to get serious about reading the Bible every day.

Heather: My coffee spilled all over me, one of the kids hurt themselves . . . there were, like, four distractions. I just said, “Satan, you are so obvious to me right now, but you will not get this year, because this year I will not skip a day in the Bible.” I started January 1 and went through the entire year reading one chapter a day of the Psalms.

I read Psalms through twice at one chapter per day, and the third time I read two chapters a day, so I could get through it three different times. The growth that took place in my own heart . . .

Nancy: What were you doing when you were reading those psalms? Were you studying?

Heather: It depended on the day. Being a homeschool mom, some days the boys would be more compliant to me having more time than others. I had a journal in which I would jot down notes; I’d jot down notes in my Bible. Oftentimes, though, I would read the psalm more than once a day.

So I might read it in the morning with my cup of coffee and maybe read back over it later in the day. So it was something I was constantly going to. The theme that I saw through the book of Psalms was the security of knowing God. One of my favorite verses was Psalm 16:8: “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

That is the theme that I saw through the book of Psalms—this Rock that I stand on. As I saw God giving me this hunger to be in the Word every day and to be cultivating this delight in being with Him every day, I just saw that God was making it so abundantly clear that I have an audience of One. He is the only One that matters, and what He thinks of me is the only thing that matters.

I saw God break that chain of caring what other people think of me in a fresh way, by being in God’s Word and marching to His beat and not caring that I’m the only one marching to His beat. There were things that He called me to do that were completely out of my comfort zone in a situation where it would have been very easy to say “no” to Him. But He said to me, “Do not quench this fire that I am starting.”

He asked me to do something in a very large church that was very uncomfortable for me. It was one of those Holy Spirit moments that I felt the chain was gone. “I don’t care what people think; all that matters is that I make people thirsty for Jesus. I don’t care if it seems like I’m radical or a whacko or whatever it is. I want people to be so hungry for Jesus when they see my life.”

My husband didn’t say, “I’m going to do the challenge with you,” but he sort of took the challenge with me. He was reading four chapters a day. He got through the whole New Testament three times. He got through the book of Jeremiah and the Psalms, and the changes in him have been radical. We both have not been missing a day in God’s Word.

I would encourage your listeners, if you want to see radical changes in your life, if you are tired with the way things have been year upon year upon year, get yourself into God’s Word.I am a busy mom. I do not have a quiet chair that I sit in with my coffee . . . I have kids.

But I’m in it every day—it is doable. A huge help to me has been a group of women—there are seven of us—and we have a little group on Facebook that no one else can see. We check in with each other every day. I have the oldest kids, so these are young mommies. Two of the moms will be having their fourth child this year and their oldest are five-years-olds.

I’m not talking about moms with older kids who are in school; I’m talking about very busy young moms. We check in with each other. Holly would say, “Heather, you haven’t checked in today. Did you read?” They kept me going and kept me on it.

So, grab a group of girlfriends and say, “Hold my feet to the fire this year. Do not let me miss a day in God’s Word.” I never had a sick day. On vacation we took our Bible, on the holidays . . . we didn’t miss a day. 

Dannah: That is dedication! But like Heather said, it is doable. Her example is both encouraging and challenging to me as I start the new year, and I hope it is to you too. Let me ask this: what would it take for you to make the commitment to be in God’s Word every day?

You know, we spend time on what we value. When we know and understand that Scripture is powerful, inspired by God, why wouldn’t we want to be in it as much as possible?

Here’s where I have a confession to make: the reason I push reset on my Bible reading habits in January every year is because I have to. Busyness creeps into my life, and I find myself in ebbs and flows of my passion for God’s Word. If I’m not careful, it gets easy to stay in, well, the ebb. Before I know it, I’m squeezing out my time with the Lord for, oh, an extra hour of sleep. This is embarrassing, but scrolling social media steals my time and my joy on some mornings. You, too?! Hey, let’s not let our Bibles collect dust this month! Let it be a flow of wisdom for our hearts and minds.

Whether you need a reminder or you’re just discovering the importance of God’s Word, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is here to help us gain a deeper reverence for this precious Book. She’s taking us to Deuteronomy chapter 31 where we see Moses—a man who had a heart for God’s Word and wanted to emphasize the law of the Lord to the people. Here's Nancy.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Verse 9:

Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, "At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner [the strangers, the guests] within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." (vv. 9–13)

Skip down to verse 24, again continuing in Deuteronomy 31:

When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, "Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.” (vv. 24–26)

You see here the huge esteem and role and place that Moses gave to the law of the Lord, to the Book of the Law, the Word of God, in the life of the nation. As we said, all they had was the first portion, what we call our first five books of the Bible today. What did they do with the Word of God?

Number one, they recorded it. It was written out. They didn’t have printing presses and copies the way we do, so God gave His Word, inspired it and gave it to Moses to record. It was written out.

This reminds us what an incredible privilege it is for us today to have our very own copies of God’s Word, something we should never take lightly or for granted. It's something that the children of Israel never dreamed of having. So the Word of God was recorded and thankfully it has been passed down to us from one generation to the next.

The Word of God was respected. You see that it was given a prominent, visible place. Moses said, “Take this Book of the Law, put it next to the ark of the covenant of the Lord.” That was the central, core place in the whole nation of Israel; that was the place where the glory of God dwelt. Moses said, “Take this copy of God’s law and put it in the most visible prominent place.”

It was respected. It was not put up on a shelf or stuck in somebody's tent or buried in the ground or someone just hauling it around with their other belongings. There was huge respect and visibility given to the Word of God.

The Word was read. It was read regularly. It was read aloud, and it was read corporately. Every seven years on a regular basis the people, all the people, all ages, were to assemble together to hear the Word read to them. When it was read, it was read in its entirety from start to finish.

Some of us would think today that eternity had come if we were to read Genesis through Deuteronomy in one of our church services. But this was such a precious, beloved, cherished possession to the children of Israel that God would have spoken to them, that it was no hardship or duty to come together every seven years—men, women and children to congregate together and to have the priests read aloud the Book of the Law to them.

I think it’s important to notice that the children were included. Even those too young to really understand everything were hearing. They would hear the Word of God and, in time, as they grew up, they would learn to fear the Lord. The parents would hear and learn to fear the Lord, and the children would hear and learn to fear the Lord.

Our corporate worship is so vital for many reasons, but not the least of which is that as the Word of God is read and preached in our church services, we have an opportunity not only to learn the Word of God for ourselves, but also to teach the ways of God to the next generation.

It’s one thing to do it in our families; that’s very important. But there is something important too about families coming together to hear the Word of God read and preached, so that your children know it’s not just our family that values this but it’s other families. They are being raised in a community of faith that honors and exalts the Word of God. This has to mold and shape their lives.

Let me say, by the way, in my opinion, the single most important reason for education is to read and comprehend the Word of God, so that we can know God through His Word, so that we can respond obediently to Him. The purpose of education is not just to make us smarter.

I believe the single most important reason for getting your children well educated is so they can handle this Book. Not so they can become scholars of this Book, but so they can know God and walk obediently with Him.

What would happen when the Word was read aloud to this corporate gathering of God’s people? They were to do three things. First of all they were to listen, hear the Word of God. You can be listening with your physical ears but not listening at all with your heart.

I’m ashamed to say how many times in our church I have stood with our congregation for the reading of God’s Word and had my mind be in so many different places, even as God’s Word was being read. God said, "When the Word of God is being read, hear it. Hear it not just with your ears but with your heart." Hear it. Take it in. They were to listen.

They were to learn to fear God as they heard the Word of God read. They were to have a respect and reverence for God and His Word. There was nothing casual about this gathering, this corporate time of coming together to hear the Word of God read.

I’m sure there were little children who must have gotten fidgety.

I can remember in our family devotions when we were little, we had quite a span of children, different ages. There were always younger ones and sometimes older ones who didn’t have much attention span. I’ve been with families as they’re trying to have family devotions.

Sometimes it can be an effort and some maybe don’t have the capacity early on to hang in there for any length of time. But it’s important for your children to know that this is a serious, important, and valuable time that your family, your church family, respects and reverences the Word of God.

So they were to learn to fear God and then number three, they were to do it. Do it; to obey the Word of God. Not just some of it but all of it, all of the Word of God. Listen to it. Learn to fear God, have respect and reverence for Him, and then do the Word that you have heard.

Dannah: Ah, yes! Be not only hearers of the Word but doers! Are we approaching God’s Word in that way? Nancy’s been helping us see why it’s so important to keep Scripture at the center of our lives. When we give the Bible its proper place in our hearts, it shapes our thoughts, words, and actions. 

I think that kind of dedication gets noticed by others. When people see us prioritizing God’s Word, talking about what He’s teaching us, living out the principles He’s spoken, demonstrating His love (I could go on and on), that encourages them to reach for their own Bibles. It’s contagious. 

Courtney Doctor joined a recent Grounded, our weekly videocast and podcast. She talked about spurring each other on in our Bible reading. She’s sharing practical ideas for how to help the women around you get to know God’s Word better. Here’s Courntey with our own Portia Collins. 

Courtney Doctor: I think one thing that I was slow to realize in my own life, even in the context of just my family, I didn't really talk about how much I love God's Word. I didn't really talk about what that morning I had learned in His Word or what I had learned in my Bible study. It was happening, but I think when we talk about it, we just share what we read, what we learned, what we saw. 

I just did the impromptu road trip with my adult daughter, one of my adult daughters. She was doing this on the trip. She was saying, you know, Mom, this is what I've been reading. This is what I've been studying. This is the verse I'm memorizing, and her joy was contagious to me. 

And so, I think, first and foremost, if you're somebody who is in the Word and loves the Word, let your joy and your love of the Word show.

Portia Collins: Yes, that is super encouraging and convicting. Because I realized, I sometimes conceal that joy a little bit. I'm in my world with my Bible. And I'm like, yes. But I think our enthusiasm and our joy could be motivators for others. So, I love that. I love that. 

I want to share this quote that I picked up. It came from an article, and we'll get a little bit more into my question, but I want to share this preface things by sharing this quote. It says, 

Our postmodern culture has produced people who do not know the Ten Commandments, the books of the Bible, or even basic Bible stories. Because of this, many interested women join a Bible study only to be embarrassed that they cannot flip to cross reference their Bibles or participate in discussion that requires previous Bible knowledge.

So, that's the quote. I think this is interesting and begs the question of how can we leverage situations like what is being described here in this quote, as opportunities to better teach and equip women?

Courtney: What can I answer, speaking to both women in that scenario . . . So to the woman who is showing up and is embarrassed to not know, I want to just speak to her first, because that was me. When my husband and I first became believers, I had to take my Bible and put the tabs there so that I could know where to go? Yes, because I didn't know where to find those books. And I thought I would be embarrassed, too. 

So to that woman who is at that place, where if somebody said turn to the book of Matthew, you would need to go to the table of contents, just be encouraged, go to the table of contents. There is no shame in that. The Lord is not sad by that. He's real, that you're going to the table of contents and finding out where the book of Matthew is.

To the women who are in the study who know where the book of Matthew is, or the book of Amos, and they can turn their way without going to their table of contents . . . Please create a culture in your church that says, “We're not going to assume that we all know where it is. We're not going to be prying people that we were able to turn there without going to the table of contents.” And so, so just explain that we're going to be turning to page whatever, or we're going to be flipping past don't go this way, go that way. 

But just normalize the fact that it's okay to not know at the beginning what the Ten Commandments are, and it's okay. If somebody is showing up and they're wanting to learn, oh, my word, welcome them with open arms. Realize that most of us were in that exact spot at one point. 

But the idea that we are in a culture that no longer just has an understanding of the Bible, I think we still live in a time when most people know what the Bible is, but there are a lot of assumptions about what the Bible says that it's going to be a lot of rules. They are going to tell you not to do a lot of things that you want to do. So I would say to anybody who doesn't know the Bible, but wants to know the Bible, ask the Lord to just open your eyes and pick it up and start reading. I think you guys were talking a little bit earlier, some are easier than others. Find a good study that helps you understand what the Word is saying. And to us, the Lord is at work there. The Bible is different than any other book that has ever been written. It is living and active. 

That's not just something that we say, it actually is alive, and it gives life to those who read it. But it also in being active, it changes us. And the Spirit of God is present in the people that are reading the Word of God. 

And so, how do we encourage people to say, “Oh, open it and start reading and trust the Lord” in this cultural moment that we find where it's not a given that people understand what the word is?

Portia: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, one of the things that I'm hearing you say, as you say all of it is humility.

Courtney: Yes.

Portia: Like we have to have humility in how we teach and how we share and even how we model what we're learning and how we're growing as Christian women. So, I think that that is really, really good. That's really good. 

So practically speaking, because I know our ladies are Grounded sisters . . . They're like, we hear what you're saying, but what does this look like for me? What is one way that we can actually get into our Bibles more, while also helping and encouraging other sisters to get in the Bible more?

Courtney: Well, I think to the woman who knows the Lord and is going through that season of drought . . . If that's where you are, you're just not feeling it. I would say, show up obediently because the Lord is working and push against the idea that the reason I'm in the Word every day is because it's going to make me have a better day, I'm going to get something just for that day. 

That's simply not why we go to the Word. I mean, there are times that the Lord gives us that word for the day. And it's so encouraging and so nourishing. But it really is for the long haul. It's doing today, what we know our future self is going to need because it's growing us. It's strengthening us, maturing us, rooting us, establishing us. I mean, that's what the Word does. 

And so, for the woman who knows the Lord and just not feeling it, I would just say them, be obedient and run to the Word. 

But if you're wanting to help others do that, I think one of the most beautiful ways to invite somebody to know the Word is instead of just handing them a Bible and saying, “Good luck. Let me know if you're in it every day.” That has a place. But what if you read it together? What if you invited somebody to meet with you for thirty minutes a week or an hour a week, and you read it together and you read it out loud? 

You know, most of these books when they were first read, they were read out loud to groups of people, to the congregations. So read it out loud, meet in a Starbucks and read it out loud. There's a great book by David Helm called One to One Bible Reading that will help you. It's sort of a curriculum for how to do that. Or I think of Melissa Kruger's book, Growing Together. There are resources out there to help us do that. 

You have to encourage someone with more than just words, but with action saying, “Let's do this together. And let's read it out loud.” And then, ask good questions, read it out loud. And then really, I always ask three simple questions of the text. 

What did I just learn about God? Who He is, right? Yep. That's the first thing. I'm in Ezekiel right now. I need to really ask myself, “What am I learning about God” when I finish my reading? 

And then what do I learn about my need or our need for salvation? Usually that's pretty evident, right? And then the third question I ask is, what's a faithful response look like? And so, the faithful response might be obedience to a command, but it might be that I fall on my face and I worship and I praise. It might be that I develop a heart of gratitude. It might be that I go to a brother or sister and repent. 

I mean, there are so many different ways to faithfully respond to what the Word is saying, but what do I learn about God? What do I learn about my need, our needs? 

And then what does a faithful response look like? That's those simple questions to ask of any text that help us do more than just read and kind of do the check mark, like, oh, I just read. But to really, really study to apply, to look for how the Word is going to change us.

Dannah: That’s some good advice from Courtney Doctor on encouraging others to know and understand the Bible. It’s also really motivating for us to remember why we read the Bible in the first place. 

Hey, can I offer you some encouragement? Well, it’s actually a list of resources I’d like to share with you. But I find tools are often just the encouragement I need to want to live in the flow of wisdom of God’s Word. Head to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, click on today’s episode, and you’ll find a link to a treasure trove of helpful things related to reading and studying the Bible. Again, you’ll find that list at our website. Check out ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and click on this program, “The Most Important Habit You Can Form.” 

Think about when you’ve found yourself in a desperate situation. It’s not a good feeling, right? We don’t like to be desperate. Except, when it comes to needing Christ, we should absolutely live in desperation for Him. We’re going to talk about what that means next time. I hope you’ll join us.

Thanks for listening today. Thanks to our team: Phil Krause, Blake Bratton, Rebekah Krause, Justin Converse, Micayla Brickner, and for Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh

Revive Our Hearts Weekend is calling you to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

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