A Challenge for this Winter
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5)
The Lord wants seven things from us. He wants us to (1) pray, (2) read His Word, (3) worship Him by going to church and also taking Holy Supper, (4) examine ourselves and repent of our sins, (5) shun evils as sins, (6) charitably perform useful services for our neighbors, and (7) become eternally happy by growing ever closer to Him.
Now, looking at that list, you may notice that the first half of the list takes a lot less effort than the second half. In fact, praying, reading and worshipping are so easy, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that we can skip over them and just get down to the “real” tasks of spiritual living. But each of these tasks builds on those that come before. We do the first three because they give us the power to do the rest.
For example, the book Conjugial Love tells us that we connect with the Lord by reading His Word with the desire to hear His genuine truth:
...The Word is the means by which the Lord is conjoined with people and people with the Lord, because it is in its essence Divine truth united to Divine good and Divine good united to Divine truth....It follows from this that the Word is a perfect marriage of good and truth. And because it is from the Lord, and because that which is from Him also is Him, it follows as a consequence that when a person reads the Word and draws truths from it, the Lord attaches good. For the person does not see the states of good affecting him, because he uses his intellect to read the Word, and the intellect takes in from the Word only what is proper to it, namely, truths.
The intellect does have a sense that the Lord joins good to these truths, from the delight that flows in when it is in a state of enlightenment, but this takes place inwardly only in the case of people who read the Word for the purpose of gaining wisdom, and those have this purpose who are trying to learn genuine truths from it and thereby form the church in themselves.
In contrast, people who read the Word only for the glory in being learned, and people who suppose that simply the reading or hearing of the Word inspires faith and leads to salvation - such people do not receive any good from the Lord. That is because the goal of the second sort of people is to save themselves by just the mere sayings in the Word, apart from the presence of any truth in them; and the goal of the first sort of people is to become renowned for their learning, a goal which does not have any spiritual good attached to it but only natural delight arising from the glory of the world…. (Conjugial Love 128)
In this spirit, here’s a challenge for you for this winter: read an entire Gospel, start to finish, a little at a time, day by day. If you want a short one, try Mark. If you’re feeling up to a philosophical challenge, choose John. If you want to get into the Christmas spirit, then either Matthew or Luke is a good way to go. But pick one, and commit to reading it, start to finish, between Christmas and Easter.
Pick a time of the day that works for you. It can be when you first wake up, when you are about to go to bed, or some other time of the day. You can do it by yourself. If you’re married, you can read to each other as a couple. If you have kids, you can read to them every night. But pick a time and stick to it.
When the time for daily reading comes, close the door and settle your mind. Pray to the Lord for enlightenment and inspiration. Then read a few verses. If you find yourself caught up in the story, go ahead and read a chapter. If you’re feeling a time crunch or if you’re tired, it’s okay to only read a few verses. The important thing is that you do it daily, to build a habit.
We can’t read ourselves to heaven. However, when we do it with the right frame of mind, it can certainly make the trip a whole lot easier.
Then they cried out to Jehovah in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His Word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. (Psalm 107:19-20)