A Bible that is Falling Apart . . .

. . . usually belongs to someone who isn’t

“A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” Quote by Charles Spurgeon.

Praying and Bible-reading lead to a deeper relationship with God

My Fervent Prayers is here to encourage you to pray. In a broader sense, my goal is to encourage you to know God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit better so that you develop a great relationship with Him that includes deeper conversations. Communication is a foundation of a great relationship, and communication needs to travel in both directions between two people. Can you imagine being in a relationship with a spouse or a parent or a child and having the conversation flow in only one direction? Some of you may be in a relationship like that. I am sure you long for two-directional communication. One way we communicate with God is prayer. Another way we hear from God is by reading our Bible.

A good relationship with God helps restore our inner peace

As we get to know God better by reading our Bible and praying, our relationship with God grows, our faith grows, and our ability to handle adversity with an inner peace also grows. I do not want to make light of your situation if your life is currently in shambles, and I certainly do not want to imply that your wrongdoing has brought on your troubles or that you have trouble in your life because you have not read your Bible or prayed enough. Maybe we HAVE done something that has caused our life to be exceedingly difficult, but we need look only as far as the book of Job to know that righteous people endure hardship and adversity and lives turned upside down through no fault of their own.

Even righteous people endure suffering,
but knowing God well sustains our faith

Although Job’s friends told him he needed to repent, God said Job was a righteous man. Yes, Job was a righteous man who endured much suffering, and in the midst of his suffering, he worshipped God and never cursed Him.

Job was able to endure his season of suffering with his faith in tact partly because he had a good relationship with God that sustained him.

If we want to praise God with our faith in tact in the midst of our calamities, we need to know Him well. If we want to know Him well, we need to spend time praying and reading our Bibles everyday.

Find your Bible or invest in a new one

If you are not a regular Bible reader, I implore you to please find your Bible, and dust it off, and start reading it every day. Do any of you remember that old song, “Dust on the Bible?” I believe Hank Williams sang it. Whenever I see a Bible with dust on it, I hear Hank Williams singing that song in my head. (You can click on the title, or click HERE to see the words to the song).

If you do not have a Bible, please invest in one. Don’t just use your phone for everyday Bible reading. You want a real Bible — a real book — for your daily Bible reading, and if you can, hide your phone when you are reading your Bible. You don’t want the distraction of your phone when you are trying to read and meditate.

If you invest in a new Bible, when you get it, please avoid the temptation to keep it perfect and new looking. If you read your Bible in the morning while you are having your first cup of coffee for the day, you may spill coffee on it, or your three-year-old child or grandchild may come running by and smear peanut butter on a page. Do NOT despair. The important thing is that you are reading your Bible. The peanut butter stain just becomes part of the fabric of your Bible’s story — your life’s story. Let the stain forever remind you of your good times with your child or grandchild.

Make your Bible yours by marking in it

Please mark in your Bible. I love books, and I have a collection of nice books. I own books in which I do not write. My everyday Bible is NOT one of those books. Write in your Bible. Make it yours. Mark things that are important or surprising to you. Make your Bible yours by marking in it even if it is a really nice, expensive Bible someone gave you as a gift. My grandfather gave me a very nice Bible when I was about 13, shortly before he died. I kept that Bible pristine. I kind of regret that now. So now, forty year later, I am writing and marking that Bible and making it mine.

If we use our Bible, it will be
a blessing to those we love after we go “Home”

Not to belabor this point, but a pastor once told me that when he needed to preach a funeral, he liked to ask a family member for the deceased person’s personal Bible. He said that there was nothing sadder to him than getting the person’s Bible and finding it in new condition. He loved to see Bibles where the person had written in the Bible and made notes about things they learned or prayers they prayed and had God answer. He said that even if he didn’t know a person personally, if the person had marked in his or her Bible, he could often talk about the person like he did know him or her because he had gotten to know the person through his or her Bible.

So, get your Bible, and use it. Read it. Mark in it. Make it your own — it is between you and God. We will each be glad we have done this because a well-worn Bible that is falling apart is a great testimony to our faith. Reading and using our Bible will help us not only learn and remember what we read, but a well-worn, well-read, well-marked Bible that is falling apart will also be a joy and a blessing to our loved ones who find it when we are gone “Home.”

Remember to pray

Have you prayed yet today? Let us thank God for give us His Word, and let us ask God to give us a love for reading His Word and praying. Let us especially ask Him to give us wisdom and understanding as we read.

I’m Robyn Monroe . . .
Writer, Speaker, and Prayer Provocateur . . .
Encouraging You to Pray. Everyday. One Prayer at a Time.

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