Lent day 6

I’ve been really convicted lately about my habits of reading my Bible and prayer, or rather my lack of habits of reading the Bible and prayer.

It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time.

Every year I start off the year thinking that this is the year I’ll start one of those read the Bible in a year plans and stick with it.

But a week or so into the year I’ve fallen behind and I’m either trying to catch up or I’m just giving up completely.

Then I’ll try to do some smaller reading plans that are a little easier to get through. But even those don’t seem to work very well.

I can always find some reason to put it off until later in the day. “I’ll do it this afternoon.” Then when afternoon gets here, “I’ll do it tonight before I go to bed.”

Then it’s the next morning and I’m feeling guilty about not following through on my intentions.

In the past I’ve thought, “well maybe if I get a new Bible translation it will spark me to read it.” Which has only led to a whole shelf of dusty Bibles in almost every translation there is. Most of them have barely even been opened.

Now, I do most of my Bible reading on my phone or iPad just for the convenience of it. But that really only makes me feel worse, but it means I have it with me at all times and still always seem to find other things to spend my time on.

The same goes for my prayer life, and I think I’ve figured out that the lack or Bible reading has led to the lack of prayer.

Not that I can’t and don’t pray. But I’ve never really had a deep prayer life.

It’s always been an awkward thing for me. I’ve never really felt comfortable praying.

Timothy Keller was talking in his book on prayer about how we know the God we pray to and how to pray by reading the Bible and developing a relationship with Him.

It’s like if I just called up a friend from way back in high school and asked them to do something for me or told them about my day or just acted like nothing had changed and we were still best friends. They wouldn’t respond very well most likely. Most likely it would take a while for them to even realize who we are and where they knew us from.

It’s the same with God. How can I expect to have a close relationship with Him through prayer, if I’m not willing to take the time to know Him better through the scriptures that He has given to us?