I’m Tired and Busy — How Do I Make Time for the Bible?
00:00:00.000 | There are seasons when life wearies us, when it seems like we're too tired and busy for
00:00:09.980 | any kind of meaningful engagement with our Bibles, such is the current situation for
00:00:14.720 | Elena, who writes us today.
00:00:16.600 | "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:17.920 | I live alone.
00:00:18.920 | I work long weeks.
00:00:19.920 | I find it nearly impossible to keep up with my Bible reading.
00:00:23.720 | Cooking, cleaning, exercising, running errands, getting food, shopping, on and on, and by
00:00:30.160 | the time I get home I'm exhausted.
00:00:32.480 | I schedule times to read my Bible, to pray, and to be alone with God, but I feel as if
00:00:36.280 | I'm only giving God 15 minutes of my day, and I don't want that.
00:00:40.760 | But I have to pay the bills to live.
00:00:42.580 | I feel stuck.
00:00:43.580 | When I'm reading my Bible, I'm half asleep.
00:00:46.400 | The only time I get now is in the weekends, but that's not enough.
00:00:50.300 | In what practical ways can I beat back the busyness of my life to ensure that I make
00:00:55.700 | time for Him?"
00:00:57.640 | I hear Elena putting her finger on three things that are frustrating her time with
00:01:04.320 | God in the Word.
00:01:06.120 | One is that she feels stuck.
00:01:08.520 | Second, she feels exhausted, like she's going to fall asleep when she's reading
00:01:13.680 | her Bible.
00:01:14.760 | And third, she's incredibly busy with many, many pressures pushing the Bible out to the
00:01:22.940 | edge of her life.
00:01:24.540 | Let me say a word about those.
00:01:28.620 | Just a word about being stuck.
00:01:30.660 | I watch people get stuck in the snow outside my house.
00:01:34.340 | They live on a corner, so they have to stop and then pull out into the street.
00:01:38.520 | Some people sit there in the same place for 10 minutes.
00:01:45.820 | I'm looking out there, so okay, I'm just going to get out there and push them.
00:01:49.100 | But they just spin, spin, and spin as though doing the same thing over and over and over
00:01:53.140 | again is going to get out of stuckness.
00:01:57.440 | Snow is part of the problem, but just doing the same thing over and over again is also
00:02:03.060 | part of the problem.
00:02:04.060 | So getting unstuck might require putting it in reverse, kind of counterintuitive back,
00:02:09.540 | forward, and rock that thing out of there.
00:02:13.260 | Or shoveling, you get out, shovel the snow away from front of your drive wheels.
00:02:18.100 | Or you might ring the doorbell of the Pipers and say, "You got any men here?"
00:02:22.860 | Which has happened.
00:02:23.860 | My sons and I have pushed a lot of people out of the snow.
00:02:27.020 | So the point is getting stuck requires some sometimes counterintuitive new efforts.
00:02:34.700 | So what might that be in relation to busyness and exhaustion?
00:02:42.540 | Elena lists cooking, cleaning, exercising, running errands, getting food, shopping.
00:02:51.340 | Now those sound to me like classic, good, valuable things that tend to fill up your
00:03:00.420 | life.
00:03:01.700 | And Jesus was in the house of a couple of women who were different in their response
00:03:09.260 | to these things.
00:03:10.260 | You remember what I'm talking about, Luke 10, 40.
00:03:13.620 | Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to the Lord and said, "Lord,
00:03:19.740 | do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?"
00:03:24.780 | And Elena says she lives alone.
00:03:27.100 | "Tell her then to help me."
00:03:30.340 | But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.
00:03:36.940 | One thing is necessary.
00:03:39.260 | Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her."
00:03:43.940 | Now I know Elena says, "Look, I got to pay my bills."
00:03:47.860 | That's what she says.
00:03:49.700 | But I think if Jesus visited her home and watched her schedule, he would probably point
00:03:56.300 | to some things and say, "No, that doesn't have to consume quite that much time.
00:04:03.180 | No, you don't have to devote that much time and energy to that.
00:04:08.060 | One thing is needful.
00:04:11.580 | More needful than your pattern of cooking, more needful than your pattern of cleaning,
00:04:16.660 | more needful than your pattern of exercising, more needful than your pattern of errand running
00:04:21.420 | and shopping, it's just plain more needful."
00:04:26.380 | And in Luke 8, 14, Jesus warns about the way the Word is choked by ordinary good busyness,
00:04:35.900 | right?
00:04:36.900 | He says, "And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear the Word, but as they
00:04:45.860 | go on their way, they're choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life."
00:04:55.500 | Cares of life, oh my, don't we all have them?
00:04:59.020 | And their fruit does not mature.
00:05:01.700 | And then he reminds us, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
00:05:06.100 | out of the mouth of God."
00:05:07.140 | So my encouragement is for Elena to sit down and maybe make a list of the way she's spending
00:05:13.980 | her life.
00:05:14.980 | She's already got it itemized in this question she sent to us, the details of her life that
00:05:20.780 | seem to be robbing her of what she really wants to do.
00:05:25.540 | And she should ask about each one.
00:05:27.820 | Is it the way I do it the best way, and is it more important than spending time with
00:05:33.980 | God in His Word?
00:05:35.700 | Is there a way to readjust the time spent on these things to make time for the Word?
00:05:42.260 | And very specifically, I would say, maybe set your alarm 45 minutes earlier in the morning
00:05:50.940 | and take your usual shower, get dressed, put the Word of God before any busyness at all.
00:05:58.820 | Don't leave the Word to fill the cracks.
00:06:02.460 | Force other things into the cracks.
00:06:04.980 | They will get done.
00:06:06.780 | You will pay your bills if you read your Bible, you will, I promise you.
00:06:10.780 | Closely related to this is weariness, especially if you get up 45 minutes earlier, right?
00:06:17.100 | She's probably shaking her head right now, saying, "Are you kidding me?
00:06:19.420 | I'm already dead tired."
00:06:21.580 | Closely related is this issue of weariness, falling asleep when you read your Bible, and
00:06:26.420 | who hasn't done that?
00:06:28.300 | Three practical suggestions.
00:06:29.700 | One, go to bed earlier than you usually do at night in order to feel more rested, especially
00:06:38.380 | for the Word.
00:06:39.980 | You can force yourself to go shopping when you're tired.
00:06:44.900 | You probably can't force yourself to stay awake when you're tired, but you can go shopping
00:06:50.740 | when you're tired.
00:06:52.460 | Second, in the morning, if you have to, go ahead and make your coffee and let that caffeine
00:06:58.300 | do its magic.
00:06:59.300 | I don't drink coffee, but I get what caffeine does.
00:07:03.660 | I can drink Coke and tea.
00:07:06.860 | Third, I have done this hundreds of times.
00:07:11.620 | If your body insists on getting sleepy, take your Bible in your hand and get up out of
00:07:19.100 | your comfortable chair and walk around the room in circles reading your Bible.
00:07:26.980 | There's nothing sacred about sitting, and it's much harder to fall asleep while you're
00:07:31.940 | walking.
00:07:32.940 | I did it just the other day.
00:07:35.500 | But perhaps more important than these nitty-gritty practical suggestions is the foundational
00:07:41.780 | experience of the Word of God is more precious than anything.
00:07:48.020 | Remind yourself of this by preaching Psalm 19.10 to yourself.
00:07:53.860 | Preach it to yourself.
00:07:55.260 | The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
00:07:59.860 | More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and
00:08:10.260 | drippings from the honeycomb.
00:08:12.500 | So don't let gold and don't let food feel more valuable or more sweet than the Word
00:08:23.180 | of God.
00:08:24.180 | They're not.
00:08:25.180 | No, they are not.
00:08:26.180 | Great thoughts here, Pastor John.
00:08:27.420 | Thank you, Elena.
00:08:28.420 | Thanks for the great question.
00:08:30.220 | And we have so many great questions from listeners like you, and because of it, we have more
00:08:34.300 | than 1,300 total episodes in our archive now.
00:08:37.340 | You can benefit and be blessed by those episodes by going to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:08:42.060 | Well, today we talked about Bible reading and the challenges of life, which leads to
00:08:48.140 | another question.
00:08:49.340 | At what point does our Bible neglect become sinful neglect?
00:08:54.660 | Question arrived from Germany.
00:08:55.660 | It's a good one.
00:08:56.660 | So on the table Wednesday when we return, I'm Tony Reinhart, your host.
00:09:00.180 | We'll see you then.
00:09:00.680 | [END]
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