First Five

I haven’t always had the habit of “time with Jesus” - praying, reading my Bible, doing devotions. And I wasn’t really all that excited to create the habit. I was very content watching my Joyce Meyer sermons while I got ready i the morning. It was a “throw one stone, kill two birds” kind of thing. And it drove me kind of nuts every time she would mention that listening to her program was not enough, we need to read the Word.

One more thing to add to my already full plate. No thanks.

As time went on, I realized that while watching Joyce (and other pastors and speakers) was a great use of my iPad, it was no longer “satisfying” the need in me. I was craving more. In my search for that something more, I found myself buying small devotional books that had a short scripture with an encouraging word along with it. This was the little boost that I needed. And it was “doable” for me.

I was afraid that time in my Bible meant that I would have to read words and names for hours that I couldn’t pronounce and didn’t really understand what it meant. Thee and thou and that weird Old Testament stuff…it all kind of scared me a little. The fact that it didn’t make much sense to me made me apprehensive. I think I believed that you had to get to a certain point in your walk with God to be able to make sense of all that.

So I started small. I started with the little books. The books that took me a couple minutes to read and then allowed me a couple minutes to meditate on the meaning and pray. Allowing myself to start small like this and not feel like I had to read all of Deuteronomy before I started my day made me feel like this idea of reading the Bible was possible for me. The nice thing about devotionals is that they are typically filled with scriptures that are inspiring, encouraging and life-giving…or convicting, which is a good thing even though it doesn’t always feel good.

Through these short devotionals I was able to get exposure to scripture in a way that made sense in my everyday life…and fit into my schedule. Because let’s face it: it takes some time for us to realize that God comes before everything else in the schedule. As a busy mom of 4, who runs around like a chicken with its head cut off after the offspring awake, I had to get these few minutes with Jesus before anything else. And a “few minutes” was manageable and felt good.

It didn’t take long, though, for me to see the fruits of these few minutes with Jesus in the rest of my day. I became more calm and peace-filled even when things around me would normally have stressed me out and created chaos within me. I started wanting more. I have no better word to describe it than a “craving.” I wanted more and I needed more. I’m broken (yes, just like you…we’re all broken) and it didn’t take long to realize that this time in the morning made me a little less broken…moment by moment, morning by morning, day by day.

These days I can’t get enough. Anytime I have spare time, I reach for my Bible or my YouVersion Bible app if my Bible isn’t around. The Bible has the solution for every problem I have. It calms every fear and every anxiety - and I still get a lot of that. But I gave myself the grace to start small, to start with what felt manageable for me. It was hard not to compare what I was doing with what I would see other Christian women doing. It was a challenge to convince myself that I didn’t need to compete and to really know that what I was doing was pleasing to God. If you have 2 minutes or 2 hours, it’s good enough. He just wants YOU.

Here are a few resources that have helped me:

YouVersion Bible App - here you will find hundreds of devotionals by many different ministries on every topic you can possibly think of. There is also a Verse of The Day each day and you can set notifications to remind you of your devotional plans or the verse of the day. And there is even audio for the Bible so you can listen to it anytime.

Joyce Meyer Ministries App - Joyce has a 25 minute video program for each day of the week as well as a 15 minute audio message. Each week there is a different Bible study suggestion and each day there is a written devotional.

Whole Magazine - you can find them on Facebook. Each month they have a new scripture writing plan that is usually topical. It’s a great way to write out important scriptures and have them soak into your memory at the same time.

Pinterest has a wealth of Bible studies and scripture writing plans that are a great way to get started. All you have to do is search by topic. You can also follow me on Pinterest - I’ve got tons of Bible study and scripture plans pinned from various ministries that are awesome!

Most importantly - do something, do anything. Even if it’s just sitting and praying, thanking God and asking for his help. There’s no right or wrong way to spend time with God.