The Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). In our experience the word and the Spirit are not two but one. The written word is outside of us, but when the word is spoken into us by the Lord, it immediately becomes the Spirit within us. When the Spirit is spoken out from within us, He once again becomes the word. When we read the words of the Bible, they are words on a printed page, but when we take them in, they become spirit. We may rise early in the morning to pray-read a few verses. Before we pray-read the verses, they are words, but when we take them in, the rest of the day they are in us as the Spirit. It is in this way that we can abide in the Lord and He can abide in us.
I am burdened to encourage all the saints to spend time in the Word every day. Many saints may say, “Brother Lee, all that you say is right, but we just cannot find time to spend in the Word every day. Even once a week is not easy. We must either go to work early or stay home to take care of the children. We have so many other things to do. It is too difficult to spend time in the Word every day.” On one hand, I agree that our busy schedules make it difficult to spend time in the Word daily; on the other hand, I do not sympathize with those who have this complaint. Actually, it is not difficult if we have the proper realization. I have never heard of someone who could not find time to eat every day. No one has ever told me, “Brother Lee, I have been so busy that I could not eat once this week.” Even the busiest people still keep one practice—eating every day. I do not believe that in the entire history of mankind there has ever been one person who could not find the time to eat. Everyone finds time to eat because he realizes that eating is a necessity of life. In a sense, we are threatened to eat, for we know that if we do not eat, we will die. In like manner, finding time to spend in the Word depends on our realization of its importance.
Many saints today are spiritually sick and dying because they do not spend adequate time in the Word each day to contact the Lord. If we realize that touching the Word of God is a necessity of life, our concept will be changed. Many young people today are late risers and do not have time for a good breakfast. They have time only for a cup of coffee and half a donut. This kind of breakfast is not good for their health, but it is better than nothing. Despite having little time, they still eat something in the morning. It is different with me. Breakfast is the most important meal to me. I always eat a large, rich, nourishing breakfast, which is why I am still strong and energetic at my age. Of course, it is the Lord’s mercy that I am healthy. However, even if the Lord has great mercy upon us, if we do not eat, we are rejecting the Lord’s mercy and committing gradual suicide.
We all need to spend at least ten minutes in the Word every morning. Everyone can do this. We can all spare ten minutes, regardless of how busy or tired we are. Setting aside ten minutes will make no difference in how busy or tired we are, but spending ten minutes in the Word will make a great difference in our spiritual life. To find this time, we need only to rise ten minutes earlier in the morning. We need to practice to build up this healthy habit. We should consecrate ourselves to spend ten minutes in the Word before leaving for work or beginning the day’s activities. If possible, we should set aside another five minutes to pray, to mingle what we have read in the Word with prayer. We need to build up a habit of pray-reading. We should read only a few verses. Recently, because of the time constraints of traveling and visiting the churches, I have not had a long time in the mornings to spend in the Word. Nevertheless, I have always had time to read and pray-read at least two or three verses. If every morning we spend ten minutes reading the Word and five minutes pray-reading to contact the Lord in the Word, we will see a difference in our spiritual life.
Spending time in the Word in the morning is the greatest honor we can give to the Lord. Every day before doing anything else, we should pray, “Lord, I come to You. I give You the honor.” In this way we respect Him. If we are faithful to practice this, we will surely receive much blessing, not only blessing on our physical life but also blessing in our spiritual life. Spending time in the Word in the morning will also bring blessing to our environment. If we contact the Lord in His word before we go to work, our attitude will change, which will change our environment. Thus, the blessing will come even to our environment. Suppose we do not contact the Lord before we go to the office; rather, we simply go by ourselves in a poor way. When we arrive at the office, we may quickly become angry with someone. To be angry in business is a great loss; it ruins the environment, and because we become angry, we may eventually damage our health. However, if we spend ten minutes with the Lord before going to the office, we will not easily become angry. Something within us will sustain us, keeping us in the joy of the Lord.
Being angry in anything always causes a loss, and being happy always brings in a great blessing. We need to learn this secret. In ourselves we cannot be happy all the time, but it is easy for us to be angry. Without the Lord’s presence we may be angry with everyone. Our dishes and eating utensils have never offended us, but when we lose our temper, we may throw them against the wall. Furthermore, our anger may cause us to become foolish. However, when we have the joy of the Lord, we will be the wisest persons. When we have the joy of the Lord, everything is lovable. We can thus see the positive effect of spending time in the Word every morning before doing anything else. We need to build up this good habit.