When I think about why you need to read your Bible, I think of the last things I do every single night. I make sure the doors are locked, text my older children “Good night, God bless you, I love you,” and plug my phone into the charger. The only variation is if the older girls are here, then they get their good night blessing in person or if I’m gone I will call or text whoever I’m apart from to bless them good night. Of course, these are only the last three, before these there are family prayer, making sure the younger kids have brushed and flossed, etc. As I think about this evening ritual three words came to mind: protection, direction, connection. Those three words are why you need to read your Bible.
Why You Need to Read Your Bible: Protection
I make sure my doors are locked, duh, right? Don’t we all? There are bad guys out there who might want to get inside and steal, kill, or destroy…sound familiar?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;”
+John 10:10
So we lock the doors, we secure the outside to protect what’s on the inside to keep the prowlers out…sound familiar?
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
+1 Peter 5:8
The same care we take to protect and secure our body, our home, and our belongings need to be the example of the care we take of our mind, our heart, and our soul. And that’s one reason why you need to read your Bible.
Why You Need to Read Your Bible: Direction
“Good night, God bless you, I love you” is the short and sweet version of our goodnight blessing. The longer version is taken from the book, The 4:8 Principle. It goes, “You are a beautiful, wonderful, child of God, and dad and mom love you always and forever, no matter what.” Ideally, these are the last words I want my children to hear before they go to bed and fall asleep. But as any mom knows, usually between their good night blessing and walking to their room, someone touches someone, looks at them or takes a breath in their room and the last words I end up saying are along the lines of, “YOU BETTER GET TO BED NOW!” But I digress.
A study conducted a number of years ago found that “When we fall asleep, the brain continues to process words it hears.” And, “Once the participants fell asleep, they stopped pressing buttons. But the EEG signals could still show what was going on inside their brains, so the researchers monitored brain activity in the motor cortex. This area is activated when someone is planning to press a button, even if they don’t carry out the action. The EEG signals showed that even during sleep, the participants’ brains continued preparing to respond to the words they heard. When the participants woke up, they had no memory of the words, even though their brains had clearly processed them and made a decision about which category they belonged to. Encouraged by these findings, Andrillon and his team wondered what would happen if they let people fall deeper into sleep. They found that when people transitioned from light sleep to deep sleep, they no longer processed the words they were hearing.” You can read more of the study here.
Blessing my children I pray has a similar recognition effect. If not the last words they hear, it’s close enough. And the sentiment is something they can fall asleep to. I believe my words help direct their thoughts and not just at night by the way. The same way my words can direct the thoughts of my children, and just as important, the same way my words can direct my own thoughts is why you need to read your Bible. You and I need God’s Word filling our thoughts morning, noon, and night.
God’s Word states, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” Other translations use the word, “instruction” which can mean direction. God’s Word directs us.
Why You Need to Read Your Bible: Connection
Studies now say around 95% of the population own a phone. I would guess each of us owns at least two chargers per phone–one for the car and one for the house. We all know we have to connect our phone to the charger–the power source, in order for it to work. I would guess there’s a high percentage of us who have learned this the hard way. Well, maybe not learned, because if you’re anything like me, suddenly finding your phone with a dead battery or having it die on you, especially during an important conversation or in the middle of Hobby Lobby trying to use your 40% off coupon happens regularly. So instead of learned, I’ll use the word, “experienced.”
It’s just a fact, if anything is not connected to its power source regularly, it will die, which is why you need to read your Bible.
Reading your Bible is an important way to keep connected to your Power Source, your Creator, and your Father. If you feel like the life is slowly being drained out of you, you may not be fully charged.
* I’ve written an ebook to guide you through the whys and hows to get started with Bible Journaling, Bible Journaling Tips, Inspiration and Permission, and to encourage and inspire you in your Bible journaling!
Barbara says
Jenny I always consider you having wisdom. What are your thoughts and how are you handling the current abuse reports? Is it hurting your Catholic faith? To me you have a wonderful faith and I am curious how this affects you.
Blessings!!
Jenny says
My thoughts are it’s horrific and demonic. I ache for the victims and what they have suffered.
It is not hurting my faith in the least. I know too many good, holy, faithful, pure men of God who would be the first in line to exact justice, if there is any to be found in this life. And even if I didn’t know a single one, I know God and He is the first in line to exact justice and it won’t be a finite justice in this life alone.
I believe in God’s perfect will verse His permissive will, even though I don’t understand it.