Lost Art of Loving God, Part Two: Find a Friend!

For a long time, I thought of Bible reading as a pretty individualistic routine. After all, I’m not going to ask someone to come to my house and read the Bible to me. This is between me and God… Right?

Well…

One of the best suggestions I can give for maintaining regularity in Bible reading and prayer is simply this: find a friend.

Meeting regularly with a friend to discuss your personal concerns, and to commit to praying for each other, will do three important things to your devotional life. First, it will keep you focused. Second, it will keep you praying. Third, it will keep you from focusing too much on yourself.

Over the past few years, I’ve also discovered the tremendous benefit of friendship in relation to Bible reading. If you have trouble being consistent in your Bible study, here is one of the best suggestions I can offer. Find a friend and commit to reading through the same section of the Bible (such as Psalms, one of the Gospels, Romans). Agree on a pace, such as one chapter per day. Then, keep each other accountable.

I started doing this with a friend a year ago. We’re currently reading through the Psalms. And we have a simple agreement: email the other person each day. In that email, we can simply say “I read Psalm 31 today” or we can share some thoughts from it. Most days, we are sharing our thoughts – and usually in a pretty brief manner. So, technology can be your friend too!

Some might think, why find a friend when I can have devotions with my family? No argument with that, but many people find they need extra fuel in order to best serve their family. Plus, someone out there needs a friend – it might be you. Even if your devotional house is in order, you can help someone else.

Some of you might say, “I have no friends.” Then here’s another thing you can do, especially if you really want to act like a Christian. Take a Bible and head to the nearest nursing home. These folks have bodies that are breaking down, like yours will one day soon, and many of them would love to be able to read the Bible but can’t. So read it to them. Start with Psalms.

By the way, when I’m really old, or if I end up in the hospital, I would appreciate it if you would do this for me. Then I really will need someone to come to my house and read the Bible to me!