Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Planned Neglect?

I love the John MacArthur quote about planned neglect:
The more you study the Word of God, the more it saturates your mind and life. Someone is reported to have asked a concert violinist in New York's Carnegie Hall how she became so skilled. She said that it was by "planned neglect." She planned to neglect everything that was not related to her goal. Some less important things in your life could stand some planned neglect so that you might give yourself to studying the Word of God... The more you would study the Word of God, the more your mind would be saturated with it. It will be no problem then for you to think of Christ. You won't be able to stop thinking of Him. ~ John MacArthur, Found: God's Will
Is Bible reading an important goal in your life? Does reading the Bible mean something to you? What are some "less important" things that you could start neglecting in order to give your time--your heart and mind--to reading and studying God's word? 
The key to spirituality is the development of little habits, such as Bible reading and memorization and prayer. In putting one foot in front of the other day after day, we become the kind of person who grows and endures rather than withers and dies. ~ Randy Alcorn, "Finishing With Few Regrets," O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, 57
We will never love God purely--wholeheartedly--apart from immersing ourselves in God's Word because it is only in Scripture that we learn what God is like. To know him is to love him, and we always desire more of what we love most. ~ Lydia Brownback, Purity, 23
If you wanted to read one book of the Bible--the whole book, beginning to end--which ones could you read during the same time it takes to watch It's a Wonderful Life? Hold on to your hat. You could read any book of the Bible except twelve. Only a dozen books of the Bible take longer to read than watching that classic Christmas movie. Nearly forty books of the Bible can be read in an hour or less. Half the books of the Bible can be read in less than thirty minutes. And twenty-six books can be read in fifteen minutes or less. That's pretty amazing for a book that many people think is too massive to read. When you think about it, time really isn't the problem when it comes to reading the Bible. It's a good excuse, but not good enough. How much we read of the only book God ever wrote depends mostly on how much of it we want to read. Reading God's Word is less dependent on our schedule and more dependent on our desire and discipline. ~ Woodrow Kroll, Read Your Bible One Book at a Time, 12-13

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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