Erin Kurnia Assessment deadlines, church ministries, family priorities, extracurricular activities.
Term 1 is flying by fast and somehow, we are all drowned in our own busyness of our daily lives. This is where we reach the top of the hump and find ourselves stressing out for all sorts of things. We are drained both physically and mentally.
Not only do we find ourselves extremely busy but we also have to face the guilt of leaving our Bibles unread.
So then. What should we do?
It’s something that most of us struggle with: time. How often do we use our time to scroll through social media, watch or even study, but forget to read God’s Word daily? This problem is a problem of priority. And this is something crucial that this generation needs to change. What your heart values and prioritizes the most determines your actions and what you choose to do every day. For example, if you value watching dramas, you would certainly not hesitate to binge-watch them all night. But what I want us all to do, right now, is to self-introspect ourselves. How important is daily meditation on God’s Word to us?
However, daily meditation is crucial and we need it in order to grow in the knowing of God. Growing in the knowing of God is a sign of spiritual growth. This means that without reading the Bible daily, we won’t be able to grow in the knowing of God and hence, we will not be spiritually growing; instead, we will be spiritually dead.
His delight is in the law of the Lord…
Psalm 1:1-4 states:
“Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”
This Psalm compares the wicked with the righteous. What I want to emphasize here is how a righteous person’s “delight is on His law… he meditates day and night.”
Oftentimes when we read the Bible we view it as a checkbox – we tick it off the daily to-do list, but we may not necessarily delight in the Word itself.
If we look up the definition, we find that the word “delight” means: “a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction”
If we honestly reflect, do we feel pleasure and satisfaction when we meditate on God’s word daily? Or are we too invested with how busy we are to even concentrate while reading?
The Matthew Henry Commentary states:
“The entire affection which a good man has for the law of God: His delight is in it. He delights in it, though it be a law, a yoke, because it is the law of God, which is holy, just, and good, which he freely consents to, and so delights in… All who are well pleased that there is a God must be well pleased that there is a Bible, a revelation of God, of his will, and of the only way to happiness in him.”
Psalm also reveals the effect of people who are righteous and meditate on God’s word on the world around them. These types of people are described as prosperous trees, bearing fruit for themselves and others. It’s the opposite of those who don’t, who, as the Psalms describe are like the “chaff that the wind blows away”.
Man does not live on bread alone…
Matthew 4:4
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
A human body cannot survive long without eating. If we’re being specific, according to research, humans can survive without food for only up to 3 weeks. We all know that we need to eat every day to give us the nutrition we need on a daily basis. Likewise, this verse clearly shows how eating and drinking are not the only things needed to keep us living. We also need God’s Word each day to keep us alive. Just like we need nutrition daily to give us energy and strength for the day ahead, we also need to be constantly fed by God’s Word every day to sustain us as we fight temptation.
So now what?
The problem starts inside our hearts. When we start realizing the importance of daily meditation for ourselves, then we will start to value and prioritize it more. Even studies cannot be an excuse to take up your devotion time. When we start building the habit of daily meditation on God’s Word, we will find that it is amid the busyness of our lives that we need it the most.
The thing is, none of us will find the strength, willingness and motivation for such a change of heart and lifestyle unless God first gives us an understanding of how important it truly is. Hence, the importance of prayer. As much as this may sound light, it is a very true and heavy reality. And it’s sadly something a lot of people just miss and fool around with.
This is obviously easier said than done, but I invite us all to learn together and spend some time each day delighting in God’s Word. Start from short ‘bites’ first, and together we can build up the habit of reading the Bible every day, even amidst our busy lives.
Erin Kurnia (14) is one of the writers for RE Generation-Z. She hopes that by God’s grace, she can write to spread the Truth and happiness to others, that they too may be children of God living in the light. You will find that she really enjoys playing piano, baking, sewing and designing.