Now not Later

I want people to fill their minds with passages of Scripture while they are well and strong, that they may have sure help in the day of need. I want them to be diligent in studying their Bibles, and becoming familiar with their contents, in order that the grand old Book may stand by them and talk with them when all earthly friends fail. From the bottom of my heart, I pity that person who never reads their Bible. I wonder how they expect to draw their consolation in their time of need. ~ J.C. Ryle





Just the other day at work the subject in the break room went from puppies to people. Judging from how the conversation went from there we should have stayed on the subject of puppies. We got to talking about how strange, stubborn, and stupid people can be. We talked about how people wait till they have lung cancer before they quit smoking, or have a heart attack before they decide to lose weight, or wait till the divorce papers are filed before they decide they needed to do something about their marriage.


We treat the scriptures the same way. We wait for some tragedy to come along in our lives before we dust off our Bible and dig into it for the strength, comfort, and the guidance we are seeking. We like to put things off till “later” instead of dealing with it “now.”


Just recently I told my granddaughter the whole idea of growing up is to learn self-discipline so when you are on your own you can take over where your mom left off. If she can get that concept in her head she’ll be way ahead of a lot of adults. We need to learn the art of self-disciplining ourselves to read our Bible more frequently than we do. To treat it more as an owner’s manual, guide book, daily companion, or a love letter from someone we hold dear to us. Instead of a history book we look at only when we are trying to pass a test.


It would do us all well to learn how to force feed ourselves the spiritual nutrition we get from reading and studying our Bibles. We have no problem most of the time feeding ourselves physically. Boy when we are hungry nothing stands in the way of our desire to find something to eat. Trust me, go to a donut stand and see how well you survive people cutting in line to make sure someone else doesn’t get that one donut they have their eye on up on the shelf third row to the right! That’s where I taught all my grandkids the art of self-defense; just teasing, sort of. It was more the lesson on good manners.


We need that kind of hunger or enthusiasm when it comes to God’s word. Daily we should crave it. Frequently we should feed upon it. Indefinitely we should store it in our hearts. The Bible is our armory full of swords to win the spiritual war everyone on earth faces. It’s the place where we go to get dressed for Heaven.


Instead of burying our Bibles on the bookshelf to the point we can’t find it, let us bury it in our hearts where it was meant to be stored. We should never wait for the next tragedy or big event to come along before we decide to do something about it spiritually and frantically scramble through God’s word.

What good is a bullet proof vest for a police officer who decides to put it on after he goes in on his big drug bust? Now not later is the time to dive into God’s word and prepare ourselves for the next moment in our life. This, in all honesty, by now is already here as our future is just one second away so get into God’s word and get dressed and ready for it.

I said, “now” not “later!” Hum……I sound like my mom. God bless you mom! I love Jesus!

© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes