Many believers do not touch and receive the word regularly. We need to daily read and pray-read the Bible. We need to daily touch and receive a portion of the Bible regularly and even legally. Something that is regular may not be binding, but whatever is legal is binding. Some believers may claim that we should not be legal in anything. They may quote Romans 6:14b, which says, “You are not under the law but under grace.” Yes, we are not under the old law, but we need to realize that we are under a new law. In John 13:34 the Lord said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” The New Testament has far more than ten commandments. First Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Unceasingly pray.” This is a commandment. Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” This is another commandment. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Here are two more commandments. In 1 Corinthians 9:21 Paul said, “I am not without law to God but within law to Christ.” Moreover, Hebrews 8:10b says, “I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them.” Those who say that they are under grace alone and have no law may be misusing grace.
We need to be legal in coming to the Word daily. Some may ask where a law is in the New Testament that we must read the Bible legally. This law is found in Matthew 4:4, where the Lord Jesus says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” The law in this verse is that just as we eat physical food every day, so we must receive the word of God every day.
Some saints may think that we do not need to be legal in our Bible reading and that we can read the Bible only when the Spirit inspires us. Thinking this way is equivalent to thinking that we do not need to be legal in eating physical food every day and that we can eat only when we are inspired. No healthy person eats only when he is inspired. Reading the Bible is no different from eating physical food, for both are life necessities.
Reading the Word is our spiritual eating, praying is our spiritual drinking, and praying unceasingly is our spiritual breathing. These are all life necessities, for spiritually we live by them, just as physically we live by eating, drinking, and breathing. We do not depend on inspiration to take care of our life necessities. Just as we do not wait for inspiration to eat physically, neither should we wait for inspiration to read the Bible. Because eating the word, drinking the Spirit, and breathing the Spirit are necessities of our spiritual life, we should do each one legally.
Those who have only coffee and a doughnut for breakfast will be unhealthy. However, if we are legal to eat a nutritious breakfast every day, we will be strong and healthy. We need to legalize our breakfast. My wife is very strict with me—every day she serves me the same kind of nutritious breakfast. My health, my strength, and my energy come mainly from eating such a breakfast each day. We need to eat the word every morning to have a healthy breakfast for our spiritual life.
Some saints may find it difficult to spend time in the Word each morning because they must go to school or work very early. I sympathize with these saints, but I do not want to see them die spiritually. Regardless of how early we go to school or work, if we set our will, we are all able to spend at least ten minutes to read the Word and five minutes to pray each morning in order to spiritually eat and drink. Eating requires more time than drinking. Practicing this faithfully will cause us to be spiritually healthy. It is possible for everyone to do this. To reduce our sleep by fifteen minutes will not hurt us.
Some saints claim that because they were born with a weak disposition, they should not be bound by any legalities. They support this claim by quoting Romans 7:18, which says, “To will is present with me, but to work out the good is not.” However, verses 15 through 17 show that this word was written about overcoming indwelling sin, not about taking care of daily life necessities. No caring parent would excuse a child from eating breakfast simply because the child was born with a weak disposition. Nor would any employee tell his boss that he cannot come to work early in the morning because he was born with a weak disposition or that he will wait for inspiration to come to work. Life forces us all to find a way to do what we need to do. If we can find time to eat breakfast, and if we can arrive at our workplace on time, we should not despise the Lord by saying that we cannot rise early to spend time in the Word and in prayer every morning. If we see that spending time in the Word is truly a life necessity, we will not excuse ourselves from it.
If we set our will to spend time in the Word every morning, we can do it. Where there is a will, there is a way. Every part of our fallen being is condemned by God, but one part is still useful to God, that is, our will. In Mark 1:15 the Lord said, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” Repenting and believing are two New Testament commandments. We can fulfill these commandments by using our will. To repent is related not only to the conscience but also to the will. To believe in the Lord Jesus also is a matter of being willing. When we decide to believe, we immediately believe. In Acts 2:40 Peter said, “Be saved.” To be saved also is a commandment. It is God who saves us, but we first must be willing to be saved. God is merciful, but He waits for our willingness. No one is too weak in his will to be saved. We should not think that we are weak and dying. We need to see that God has given us a strong and living will (2 Tim. 1:7). Therefore, we need to set our will and pray, “Lord, have mercy on me. From tomorrow I will spend ten minutes to eat Your word and five minutes to drink the Spirit every morning.”
If we spend only ten minutes to read and pray over a few verses and five minutes to pray each morning, we will have a nourishing and satisfying spiritual breakfast. We can pray-read the Word to eat the riches of the Lord, and we can even mingle our pray-reading and our prayer together to have a good breakfast. If we practice this, within one month we will see a difference in our life. Many saints have testified that this small practice changed their life. If possible, at lunchtime or in the evening we can spend some time to read a few chapters of the Bible. If we read three chapters of the Old Testament and one chapter of the New Testament each day, we will finish reading the whole Bible in less than a year. If we continue doing this for several years, we will experience much growth in life.
In both our pray-reading in the morning and our reading of the Bible later in the day, we need to read consecutively. We should not read the Bible according to our preference or randomly. In reading the Old Testament, we should begin from Genesis 1 and continue until we finish Malachi. Likewise, we should read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation. For our morning time of reading and pray-reading, we need to look to the Lord, praying, “Lord, which book do You intend for me to enter into at the present time?” We should pray-read from the first verse to the last verse of whichever book the Lord chooses, taking a few verses each morning. In this way we will receive much nourishment. We need to make a vow to the Lord that we will spend time in the Word every morning. If we keep this vow, the Lord will bless us.