Archive for the 'Reading the Bible' Category
3 Components in My Daily Time with God
I believe one of the most essential parts of Christian discipleship is teaching people how to have a time with God daily. When my sons were elementary age boys, I taught them these things.
If we can teach our son to throw a football or our daughter gymnastics, we can teach our children how to have a daily time with God. If we can teach our friends how to close a business deal or how to decorate a home, we can teach our friends how to walk with Christ daily.
I will stay brief today even though there is so much more to share.
Component #1: Practice Prayer
Prayer is a conversation with God. Prayer is not just you talking to God, but it involves you listening to God. Daily, I begin my time with God in prayer. Practice prayer.
Whether you are a rookie or a seasoned veteran in your spiritual life, prayer is one of the great disciplines in the life of the believer. Develop your prayer life. Learn how to pray.
While I am no authority on prayer, I do pray and believe in the power of prayer. Prayer built upon the Scriptures takes it to another level.
Take the time to organize your prayer life. When you do, you will find your prayer life becoming much more meaningful and perhaps even extended.
Interweaving with prayer is the second component in my daily time with God…
Component #2: Read the Bible
The most transforming discipline in my walk with Christ is the daily reading of the Bible. Nothing is more powerful than the Holy Scriptures. When the Scriptures speak, our God is speaking to us.
From my youngest years, I was taught the value of the Bible and its impact upon my life. Read the Bible daily.
The increasing impact of the Scriptures happened to me when I began to read the Bible through each year and since 1990, I have read the Bible through at least one time annually. In this last decade or so, it may be closer to one and one-half times per year.
The point is this: The more I read the Scriptures, the more I want to read the Scriptures. Faith is built upon the Word of God, not upon the words of others. In this noisy world filled with voices that amplify negativity and forecast constant doom, I must have the Bible, God’s Word, consume me daily.
It is the Bible that anchors my faith. It is the Bible that sustains and ignites my prayer life. It is the Bible, the Word of the Living God, that serves as my filter to separate all untruth from my life.
Component #3: Keep a Journal
In 1990, God led me to not just read through the entire Bible, but to daily begin one of the most meaningful practices I have done in my walk with Christ. When I have completed my daily prayer and Scripture reading time, I close my time with God by writing no less than a one-page prayer to God.
This prayer to God that is written down in a journal daily often becomes a documentation of God working in my life. I have volumes and volumes of these prayer journal books that go back to this daily discipline that I began in 1990. Still to this day, I do this. The only change is that on most days, the letters exceed a page or two.
There is something powerful about transferring your greatest burdens and most special moments with God on to the pages of a journal.
Back to the Basics
How is your daily time with God going? Maybe today is a reminder that it is time to go back to the basics of walking with Christ daily.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, National Day of Prayer
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, President of the National Day of Prayer, and founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
Visit our website at http://ronniefloyd.com
Follow Dr. Floyd on Twitter and Instagram @ronniefloyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
5 Ways You Can Increase Your Intentionality in Your Personal Walk with Christ
There are no shortcuts in your personal walk with Jesus Christ. Just as an athlete has to train their body in order to perform at the maximum level when competition occurs, we even more need to train ourselves in godliness.
I want to list several ways you can train yourself in personal godliness. Resolving to take these intentional actions will increase your intensity as you walk with Christ personally:
1. I will develop my spiritual life daily.
When you resolve in your heart and mind that you are going to prioritize the development of your own spiritual life, you are making a decision to transform your personal life. Ask God for a plan, learn from others, develop your plan, and live by it daily.
2. I will release my life to God daily.
When you choose to humble yourself before God daily and release yourself to God fully, you will go to a new level in your life daily. When you lean on yourself it is pride; but when you lean on God alone, it is humility. Release your life to God daily.
3. I will read the Bible daily.
People who live out their faith daily are people who read their Bible daily. It is impossible to be all God wants you to be if you do not read your Bible daily. As Psalm 119:25 says, “Give me life through Your Word.” We find life when we read the Bible daily.
In just a few days, I will again complete reading through the Bible. That means that over the last twenty-eight years, I will have read through the Bible at least one time annually.
Nothing has shaped me more than reading through God’s Word daily and annually.
4. I will talk to God daily.
When you read the Bible daily, God speaks to you through His Word. This will lead you to talk to God daily. In fact, it will not only inspire you to talk to God daily, it will shape what you say to God in prayer.
Do not complicate it. Create a list of people and a list of needs; then, talk to God about these people and needs daily.
5. I will take whatever necessary actions to intensify my walk with Christ daily.
You cannot delegate your personal walk with Christ.
Therefore, prioritize it. Discipline yourself. Press in to God and press forward to do whatever it takes to intensify your walk with God daily.
It starts with you. Stand on the following words: James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.