How I Made Bible Reading and Prayer a Daily Habit

I can believe something without knowing it. For years sermons and accountability meetings nudged me to make Bible study a priority and I believed them, but I didn’t know how pivotal quiet time truly was until 2013.

Through high school, I hungered for the truth- curiosity drew me to scripture often and I journaled avidly. But for the decade that followed, I rode wave after wave of inspiration-led Bible reading, without any consistency. I was a Christian do-gooder that didn’t pray much; I was living on the fumes of former Bible reading and felt quite unwise. The flux was exhausting. It seemed that every time I journaled a prayer, I spent the first two pages apologizing and asking for strength to pray more often. God answered my prayer, but not with a dose of strength or willpower. He gave me an impediment. A temporary one, thankfully.

See, every time the military moved us to a new place, I jumped into one or five community projects and activities at once. I had always been called “high energy” and took pride in maintaining that label. Also, I rated my worth by my works. After one move, a painful pregnancy complication kept me in a chair most of the day and no sit-friendly volunteer outlets arose. I couldn’t even do our families grocery shopping much less join a campus ministry. God “blocked my path with a wall” as He did to Gomer in Hosea 2 so that “when I searched, I could not find.” I was frustrated. But He “transformed my Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope” (Hos. 2:15). As I sat there, I realized for the first time that God is just as glorified by me sitting alone in a room unbeknownst to anyone as He is when I declare His name through words and deeds.

I read that Jesus often withdrew to isolated places. If God Himself needs time alone with the Father, how much more do I? I didn’t want to spend the next 25 years doing the spiritual hockey pokey and I saw the opportunity to cultivate the habit of daily devotional time. My impediment gave me the time, but I needed some structures to keep me focused.

I had heard it takes 21 days to make a habit, so I committed to read Paul’s letters and pray for my family every day for 21 days straight.

To steer me, I recorded 31 prayers onto 2 sets of Lowe’s paint cards, one set for my husband and another for my children. I kept them in a crayon box and flipped one card each day aligning the number on the card with the date.

Then I read Charles Duhigg‘s analysis of habits. He says that good and bad habits alike have three ingredients: cues, routines and rewards. So, I came up with a habit-building system.

To start, I needed a cue.
I picked the tea kettle. Everyday, when I laid my son down to nap, I walked directly from his door to the tea kettle.

Then ensued my routine.
While my water heated, I prepped my French press, set my Bible, journal, prayer cards and pen out on the table and hid my phone on the opposite side of the apartment.

I also made some rules.
1) I was not allowed to reheat my water once the kettle squealed.
2) I was not allowed to drink my coffee unless I was doing my Bible study.
I don’t like cold coffee, so these rules kept me from “just getting a few chores done” before I started. If I could just get myself seated every day, I’d follow through.

I already felt the reward day one. I loved God’s word and craved more of it. As Duhigg predicted, my joy in Bible study further enforced my routine.

The habit stuck. Since I craved the reward of experiencing God, I no longer had to wrestle myself into my chair. I kept my system until my daughter was born. After that, I had to develop a new cue in which to set the same routine. Still, I stay disciplined knowing that when temptation to stop comes, inspiration will not hold me. I see now that God answered my prayer for self-discipline and through the fruit of that answer, He also answered my request for wisdom.

That wisdom, however, is not what I expected it to be. I thought wisdom was another word for knowledge- that familiarity with Bible verses would aid in my decision making and counseling. While that is partly true, real wisdom is knowing that I do not understand and will never understand fully enough to navigate life alone. Bible reading transformed my thinking altogether. Knowing scripture does not puff me up with know-how, it humbles me to the point of relying totally on the spirit in every circumstance. That is wisdom. That reliance is why I read the Bible.

I have written a guide to spiritual journaling. Get started with here.

https://heatherpaigehunt.com/spiritual-journaling-rest/