A while back a friend of mine asked how I stayed sharp in the Lord. It actually surprised me because I felt anything but that. Yet I began to ask myself is there something I’m doing that is growing me in ways I don’t even see?  And then I realized there was something I was doing.

When I was in college a man came and talked about how he made a commitment to be in the word at least x amount of minutes per day every single day.  I remember making the same commitment with a wimpy 5 minutes a day.  And over several decades I’ve tried to keep this rule.  Sometimes spending way more than 5 minutes and at other times working hard to get 5 minutes.  It’s a practice I follow even now.  I honestly feel the most excitement with the Lord when I study his Word.

Lately I’ve been watching different friends who I would deem mature.  Many of my friends have been to Bible college and have had much of the Word wash through their souls.  They do have a maturity that is above the common.  But I also look to some of my friends who have never spent a day in Bible college but have a real depth in the Lord.  When I think of them, I realize that every one of them is committed to daily engagement in the Word.

The Scriptures say that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Dt 8:3/Mt 4:4).  Perhaps this is more true than we realize.  Those who are daily dining on his Word are growing and mature much faster than those who take once a week meals at church or a few crumbles in the week.  And if you think of a human that is not eating regularly, they are not healthy and mature.  Instead they have commercials with fundraisers to help them escape the famine.

If you want to grow in the Lord, I encourage you too to make a commitment to be daily in the Word.  Log your discoveries so they are not lost.  And let’s be a people of God who are strong, healthy and mature.    Even if you only begin with 5 minutes per day.