I am sure at least one of you will hear me when I say, it’s tough to begin and CONTINUE a new thing. Especially when the new thing isn’t a super exciting, your favorite thing ever, thing. We all have those things, mine is making stuff. I could loose myself for days just making stuff, allowing my mind and my hands to connect and produce something new. I have gone through seasons where making stuff was all I wanted to do, seasons where making stuff would not come to me no matter how hard I tried, seasons where I felt guilty for “getting” to make stuff. I am certain we will talk more on all this, because there’s a reason for that, but back to the topic of discipline. My point is, beginning and continuing to read the Word of God can be hard. But there is a choice to make. Is reading the word of God important TO YOU?

I can also remember when understanding what I read was hard. Translating the meaning of what I was reading was hard. I would fight off the insecurities of “not knowing”. I would wonder how to apply to MY life. Looking back, the most important part of discipline was just staying with it. Reading it anyway. I started with the NIV translation study Bible. The commentary at the bottom helps you understand what you read. I also have a Message translation which reads like common English. I don’t consider the Message to be an actual translation but rather an aid to help you understand what you are reading. Ask God to teach you. Ask God to show you your next step. Ask God to give you community that could help model what walking with Jesus looks like. This is an important point. Throughout the Bible, it teaches us the character of God. Knowing the character of God helps you to identify when something or someone is leading you away from God or when something or someone is leading you toward God. It’s one or the other, always. Knowing the Character of God also helps you recognize when God is speaking to you.

God speaks to me in full stories a lot, especially when I am at work doing something. I can remember opening my pantry one day and seeing the crazy mess in there. If I’m honest it’s a crazy mess most all days. But this day the Lord let me know it was time to clean it. I can remember wondering why God would care to let me know it’s time to clean the pantry. But little did I know, He had a lot to say that day. I was emptying one shelf at a time. I would look at each item and determine if it stayed or went. Was it out of date or not. Was I likely to use it or not. Did I even buy this? Well, it was a couple of shelves in where God really started showing me how our lives and what we allow in are very similar to a pantry that is overstuffed. You see when you open the pantry it appears as thou there is plenty of food in there. By appearance there is no need to go to the store to buy supplies. However, upon closer observation, there isn’t as much value in the what items are there as you thought. There are open containers that have spoiled or are stale. There is food that is out of date. There is food you have no idea why you bought in the first place. All of it thou was taking up space in my small pantry. Valuable space. The purpose of a pantry is to store items which allow you to make a meal. After evaluating each item in there, determining it’s worth and deciding if it gets to stay in the pantry, the room left for the items chosen worthy of staying was plenty. I could see each item and tell exactly what I had in there. And, there wasn’t even enough items in common to make a meal. The purpose of the pantry being missed. Here I was thinking the pantry was full. It was good. Yet, it was bare. Useless. It was so full of things unneeded, that there was no room for things needed. This is like our lives in many ways because we try to fit in so much. Work. School. Activities. Friends. Outings. Sports. TV. Reading. Hobbies. Shopping. Church. Our inner pantry shelves are RUNNING OVER. From the outside looking in, our lives look full. Our inner pantry shelves – our purpose – being missed. We have to evaluate what we do. Is it adding Christlikeness value to our life or just keeping us busy? Do we go through the motions, and check off the boxes or are we fully prepared for our purpose? Do you need to shovel out your inner pantry, see what’s there, make room for God and His items He wants to place on your shelf?

It never failed, when my life would seem crazy or upside down or emotionally a wreck, it was because I had not made time to consistently read God’s word. To evaluate my inner shelves and throw out the spoilage. So, I’d get back on track and read His word, throw out some spoilage, I would add a devotional or a Bible plan and life would start to balance out. I said last week, as soon as you make a new commitment to become closer to God, you can count on the temptations or wounds or busyness or past sin to distract you or to tempt you ….. the list goes on. But God! When we confess our sins to one another. When we have someone pray with us. When we ask God to help us, He is faithful to hear and answer. Will we hear His? Will we be disciplined to obey?

Lord I pray that You will increase our discipline to read your word. I pray you lead each one of us to what ever we need to fully understand your will for us. Open our ears to hear how you speak to us. Will you also open our eyes to see what inner shelf needs to be cleaned out. Give us the courage to recognize what needs cleaning. Give us the obedience to throw it out. Strengthen us to walk in a new way with you. Amen