I started reading more of the Bible several months ago.  I’d followed a reading plan pretty closely the last couple years, but I wanted to read more.  It began with just wanting to read through the whole thing in a year, but soon grew to be more than something I would check off my list.  Yes, I’d tried this before and soon gave up after missing a few days and getting far behind.  This time, when I would get behind (we all do) I decided to catch up.  Sometimes I had an hour to myself being lunch monitor at my oldest’s school.  So I would read chapter after chapter of Ezra or Genesis or Matthew.  Soon I realized the benefit of reading bigger chunks, not just that one day’s assigned chapter.  I could get a bigger picture, a grander scope.  But then I had days when I just didn’t want to read.  These were days when my spirit was just off kilter; I wasn’t abiding in Him, and I thought another food (or no food) was more desirable and more beneficial to my soul than the nourishment of the Vine.  In spite of myself, I read.  Sometimes I would feel something, sometimes I wouldn’t.  But I was coming to know more deeply the importance of this abiding, this connecting to the source of life and living water.  I know I was tethering myself back to Him, coming back and placing my feet on solid ground, on Truth.

Last week I was sick for a couple days and didn’t read.  When I’m sick I like to just turn on the TV and stare at it.  I didn’t think I had the energy or desire to read anything.  When I was feeling better later on in the week I went back to the Word to catch up.  I was thirsty.  I missed it. 

There really are too many other things grabbing for our attention in this world.  Things that we quickly gulp down but end up tasting like dry sand.  No wonder Jesus cried out to the people in John 7 to come to Him and drink! 

So read the Bible, all the time.  When you feel like it or not.  The Word is your food, your drink, your very life.