Where do you get your nourishment?

Imagine if you tried to eat only once a week.

I think for most of us, that would be something of a disaster right? Our body needs nourishment, it needs food daily for us to thrive.

As my pastor pointed out the other week, we also need to nourish our souls daily – we need God’s Word. Yes, we go to church on Sunday for teaching – but that might only sustain us. If we’re to flourish we need to seek the Word throughout the week as well.

It’s such a simple analogy, I can’t believe I’d never heard, or thought of it before!

It got me thinking where and how I have the Word in my life. I’m terrible at sitting down and reading the bible for a set time each day. Which bugs me no end. I could justify it and say that I’m just too busy. But why justify it? It is what it is. But I’m not avoiding God. Nor am I saying I’m right by the way – I’d love to carve that time out, I know I should make my Lord priority. Hmm, that sounds bad, He is priority, I just need to shake things up to make more time to deeply study with Him.

The way I see it, the Bible is our most awesome handbook for how to live our best life. I don’t know about you, but I’m taking this life thing one day at a time. I do not have it sorted. The fact that there is a handbook, a best practice, guidelines, rules even, right there to help us get the most out of it, well that’s pretty awesome in my eyes.

I am better off when I spend more time with the Word and I know it.

In the tough times, there’s advice and comfort.

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 51:4

In all times there’s the one thing I know at the core of my being, I need and want the Word to direct my path that I live my best life for God.

“I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart”. Psalm 40:8

As I said, I’m not good at finding a specific time each day to sit down and study, so I’ve got to be creative about how I do this.

At the moment these are the various ways I spend time with God during the day:

• Prayer – I pray all the time. I have an ongoing conversation with God. If someone pops into my head, I pray for them. My driving time (I do a lot of that!) is also good prayer time for me. I always end my day with prayer too.
• Life FM – we listen to Christian radio which delivers a lot of fun, especially in the breakfast show, but the messages are great as well. I know it’s prompted some really interesting conversations with the children, and I’ve been deeply touched many times.
• Music – I have playlist upon playlist of great worship music and christian artists on my Spotify account. My iPod travels with me everywhere and I’m all about filling my head with positive, mainly faith-based messages.
• The Word For Today – a short daily devotional that I keep beside my toilet. Well um, sometimes that’s the only time you get a couple of minutes to yourself when you have four children!
• Blogging – I often blog about matters of faith and this writing time in itself becomes a time with God. Not to mention reading, commenting on, and encouraging other blogs/bloggers in their faith journey.
• My bible – yes, I do actually sit down and read my bible too. Like I said, I don’t set a specific time for this or necessarily do it daily, but I do read it. I still have the NIV Study bible I bought as a 16-year-old but The Bible is one book I prefer to read on the iPad. My favourite app is Tecarta where I’ve purchased a few bible versions and devotional books as well.
• Devotionals – I have a few of these (books) beside my bed and on my iPad which I use from time to time for a quick dip into the Word.
• Online Bible Studies – I’m a great one for signing up to online studies, then running out of time to follow through properly. So I label the incoming emails and file them together, then,  when I feel like tackling a particular topic, or know I have a few hours to myself, I’ll take on a few of the emails at a time. Joyce Meyer and Proverbs 31 Ministry are two of my favourite sources for these devotionals and online studies.
• Conversation – the dinner table is a great one with the kids, or in the car.

What’s your favourite way to spend time with God?