Study Break

Thursday, March 15, 2012 Posted by Sara

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For four years, I lived in what I called, “spiritual luxury.” I was a fulltime missionary and had hours throughout my week to spend studying, meditating, and eating up God’s Word.  It was a beautiful and nourishing season of knowing God intimately.  The Bible was my treasure map.  I could happily spend hours studying books of the Bible, commentaries and concordance in hand, and following “Holy Spirit” trails as God would lead me to other verses and passages and reveal deeper truth in my journey.

Two and half years ago, my life shifted. I moved to a town and church that are literally a hot bed of Kingdom activity – a place that should be easy peasy to connect with God.  But if I’m going to be raw and real right now, I have to confess, it’s been one of the hardest places for me to consistently remain in God’s Word.

I became a fulltime student, worked a job, and eventually began my first year of teaching.  I studied a lot.  I studied about studying.  I studied about how to get little people to study.  In the midst of all of that, the last thing I wanted to do with Jesus was study.  So I took a study break.

I didn’t have hours to spend digging into God’s Word – sometimes I’d have a good 5 minutes on my drive to work or right before crashing in my bed to stop and take a moment with the Lord. I struggled with feeling defeated, because I had built this ideal of what studying God’s Word should look like, that worked great for one season, but wasn’t obtainable in this new one. 

I think what I’m learning in this season is though there are rich fruit and blessings that come from concentrated and lengthier study of the Bible, the goodness of God is faithful to find me in the five minutes I may have to offer on a given day.  Sometimes it’s just reading one Psalm or one verse that reminds me of things He’s taught me in the past, conversations we’ve had, or prepares me for what I may face that day.  The Bible is a doorway to encounter the person of Jesus. So, whether we have 5 hours or 5 minutes, I pray we press on to lay hold of Him through the gift of His Word.

“Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” Hosea 6:3

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