we'll be giving away free books this week so make sure to watch to the end for details well first of all uh I've been Pastor long enough that I have to say um five minutes with God is not the goal I I think any believer would want to say I want to spend more time alone with God but I've also pastored long enough and been a professor long enough and and a Christian long enough to know that's that's reality many days so if a person only had five minutes what would they do with that five
minutes well first and most importantly I would say don't read for five minutes there's an almost Universal problem with the intake of the word of God and it looks like this people will read a chapter maybe read three chapters 10 chapters but as soon as they Clos their Bible if pressed they would have to admit I don't remember a thing I read and the reason people don't remember is let's say as they read the Bible it takes them 2 seconds to read the first verse 2 seconds to read the second verse 2 seconds to read
the third verse you can read a thousand verses two seconds each and you probably won't remember a single one of them I mean what do you ever remember that you look at for two seconds right hardly anything well you can even be looking at the most important truths in the world but if you look at them only two seconds for each one you're probably not going to remember anything well that does very little good I mean it does some good I wouldn't want people to stop doing that but people tend to think I guess it's
just me I'm I'm a second rate Christian something's wrong with me I I I never had a good memory anyway I never had a high IQ I never had a good education so the problem is with me and I say to those folks not your age it's not your memory it's not your IQ it's not your education it's your method Reading Alone was never intended to be the primary means of absorbing the scripture reading is the exposure to scripture but meditation is the absorption of scripture and it's the absorption of scripture that leads to the
experience with God and the transformation of life we long for when we come to the scripture and the problem is not that people can't meditate on scripture they just don't maybe they've never been taught how or or they basically equate daydreaming with meditation and and and they're two separate things but in my book spiritual disciplines for the Christian Life in the third chapter I talk about 17 different methods of meditation on scripture so there's not just one way to meditate on scripture to pray the Bible for example can be a way to meditate on scripture
to ask some prepared questions of it to squeeze that verse one word at a time emphasizing one word at a time to focus on that one word at a time is another method of meditating on scripture there there are many many ways to meditate on the Bible the problem is people just don't do that so if a person only had 5 minutes I'd say for starters don't read for five 5 minutes read let's say for 3 or 4 minutes and then at the end of that reading come back and choose a verse or phrase from
your reading that stood out to you maybe you just never noticed it before maybe it just kind of really applied to your life today and meditate on that verse for a minute or two well what if nothing stands out well then just choose one of the key verses in that passage that you read what what what's the really most important idea do you think one of the main ideas and in one of the main key verses there because we never think enough on the great themes of scripture we never meditate enough on the cross for
example so the general rule every day is read big meditate small read a big section a chapter or so or more if you can and then come back and meditate small one verse one phrase and by so doing you will absorb something from the scripture that you can then take with you on your very busy day and as you're driving to work you might be able to say okay what was that verse this morning oh yeah if you meditate adequately you'll remember it if you're in the Drive-Thru at lunch you can say what was that
verse oh yeah you wake up in the middle of the night can't go back to sleep you'll be able to say what was that verse Oh yeah and you can continue to think about it all day all night as the Bible says but if you don't meditate you won't remember if you won't remember you can't do that so you only have 5 minutes don't read for 5 minutes read for three or four meditate for one or two minutes and I think what will happen is you'll find that that time is so sweet so good you'll
say to yourself I think I can find another 2 or 3 minutes for this thanks for watching you can submit your questions by email Twitter or in the comments section below and don't forget to subscribe to find out the answer to next week's question we'll be giving away three copies of Dr Whitney's book that was mentioned in this episode go to the link in the description below to find out how you can enter
