Becoming Titus 2 Women

Part of becoming a Titus 2 Woman who pours into and invest in those who are younger than her as well as being humble enough to listen to the next generation when they share ideas or new ways of doing things, is really focusing on God and who He created you to be. The main way that we as followers of Christ do that is by practicing the spiritual disciplines that God has given us. This is a first of a series of post throughout the next few weeks where we are going to take spiritual disciplines and focus on one specifically. We will first focus on the disciplines that help us grow within ourselves. These disciplines are: bible intake, prayer, fasting, and silence and solitude. From there we will focus on the corporate disciplines that help you grow with fellow believers. These disciplines are: corporate worship, service, and stewardship and generosity. As you can see from the title of this week’s blog we will be looking at the discipline of bible intake, which includes reading scripture, scripture memorization, and meditating on scripture with the goal of understanding God more.

This week we will look into what bible intake looks like, some things that hinder us from doing it consistently, some tools that can help us be more consistent, why it is important for our walk and communion with God, and so much more. We find all through out scripture that taking in what scripture says is vital to our walks and understanding of God, which leads to our abilities to share Him with others as well as not wavering in times of trial or opposition. We see Jesus use scripture in Matthew to disarm satan when He is in the desert for forty days and nights being tempted by satan. We see God tell the Israelites to write scripture on their hearts and meditate on it daily. We see in Psalm 119:11 that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light our path. In Deuteronomy 8:3 we see that the Word of God sustains us and helps us live the life He has laid before us. Scripture is the living bread that gives us peace, comfort, hope, guidance, and so much more when we feed it to ourselves and are consistent in reading it daily, memorizing it, and meditating on it daily. Bible intake helps you stay ready for the battle, the questions, the doubt, or anything else this life throws your way in the day to day. When we are in scripture daily, we meditate on it, and we memorize it when hared times come we can use scripture to help our minds stay focused on the one who matters, God, rather than on the problem that is way smaller than He is. It helps us transfix our eyes on him so even the “biggest” problem we may be facing seems powerless and meaningless when it is put up next to God and His word.

Now let us jump into what bible intake looks like. The purpose of bible intake is so that we know what God expects of us, we learn how to keep the commands of God, and it helps us stay on the pay of keeping those commands and staying true to who God created each one of us to be as image bearers. Everything that is included in spiritual discipline of bible intake are hearing God’s word, daily scripture reading, memorization, and meditation on scripture. The key to bible intake is consistency in it. I had a mentor of mine who would always say be persistent until you are consistent. And what this meant was even when you may miss a day strive to do better the next day and persistently seek after time in the Word until it became a consistent rhythm in your life. Be consistent in reading daily, be consistent in memorization, be consistent on meditating on the Word daily. Let’s break it down to each component of Bible intake, first we will start with hearing God’s Word. The discipline of hearing God’s Word is played out in a believer finding a steadfast bible preaching church where they are hearing the truths of scripture preached and taught there. Another way this can happen is through playing scripture in your homes while you are getting ready or cooking as well as while you are driving your car. this can look like pulling out the bible app on your phone and playing scripture, or finding solid bible teaching podcast and play those as they talk about scripture, or listening to worship songs that are steeped in solid biblical truth. Secondly we will look at daily reading scripture. Reading scripture daily helps you center yourself on God every day so that you can be the best version of yourself possible in any and every situation. God also uses that time in the word to convict and to refine His followers. He uses that time to speak and to be in communion with you. Daily scripture reading can be a place of peace and comfort in a season that feel chaotic or like the unknown is more than the known. It gives you a foundation to stand on when you are being tempted to go against God. It helps you stand unwavering in the face of opposition. Daily reading gives you an opportunity every day to lay everything before God and watch how He works it all out. It also gives you a daily time to practice the scripture that you are trying to memorize. All in all being in scripture daily helps you stay centered on God, grow in you understand of Him, grow in your walk with Him, let go of things you don’t need to be holding onto, and so much more. The third part of bible intake is scripture memorization, this part of bible intake is vital and important for when you are facing temptation, doubt, struggle, fear, sadness, chaos you can speak scripture over the situations and to yourself so that it reminds your mind to take your eyes off what is going on around you and place them on the one who is in control of it all and who will work everything out. The same can be said for meditation on God’s Word, when you meditate on it and speak it to yourself it makes even the worst situation a little more bearable because God’s peace that transcends all understanding will enter in and help you navigate whatever is before you because it puts the creator of the universe in the drivers seat.

Things that may hinder bible intake are there, that is why it is called a spiritual discipline. You have to work at them and practice them to make them the normal rhythm of your life. When we are practicing sometimes we struggle to be consistent in it and things get in the way. I did a poll the other day on my social media platform (FB: Becoming Titus 2 Women and Instagram: Becomingtitus2women) on what stood in the way of being in God’s word consistently. The majority said that it was a busy day to day schedule and not being able to find a consistent time to be in the Word. I think this is a common thing for most women that stands in the way of being consistent in scripture reading but also in all of the other aspects of bible intake. We let the busy schedules get in the way because more times than not we are the ones who are organizing schedules and getting everyone to where they need to be when they need to be there. Then add in work things and other things the schedule can get filled up quickly. Which then leans into not being able to find a consistent time to read, memorize, meditate, hear God’s Word. Other things that stand in the way are not really knowing where to start, and not feeling like you will understand it when you read it. These are things that get in the way, if we allow them to, and hinder us from strengthening our discipline of bible intake. We need to make space in our busy schedule by saying no to things we do not need to be doing or do not have time. There are a lot of good things out there to do but not all good things are for you to do. So the way we can do this is ask God with ever opportunity is this what you want me to do or should I pass and allow someone else to take it on. We can also help with the busy schedule by allowing those around us to help where they can. Something that I personally did to not allow a busy day to day schedule to hinder daily bible intake is I made the time with God like I would make an appointment with a friend and nothing was allowed to be put in that spot because that was my time with God. The time has changed with different seasons of life but I do my best to make it a consistent meeting with Him every day, some days I fall short but I do not let the failing to do it one day stop me the next day I get back on and start with it again. I am persistent with it because it is a muscle that I am strengthening with every rep. daily bible intake having to be the same time every day does not work for everyone’s life because some peoples work shifts vary or you may have small children, or other things. But being sure that some point in your day each day you have a meeting with God. So it may be on Mondays that time is in the morning and Tuesday and Wednesday it is in the afternoon and Thursday and Friday it is in the evening before bed and Saturday it is in the morning and then on Sunday it is in the evening after everything is done. A consistent time in the word does not mean it is at the same exact time every day it means that at some point in your day you have stopped and taken time to take in God’s word.

Now let us look at some tools and methods that may help you as you start your journey of daily bible intake, get back on the horse, or continue on the journey. When it comes to hearing God’s word more times than not I personal will play the scripture I am reading that day outload while I read it. This helps me stay focused on what I am reading and I am an auditory learner so hearing it out loud makes it stick and I remember it more. When it comes to daily reading scripture a method that I use is journaling about what I read that day and how it impacted me and how I can implement it in my day. The method I use for this is called the S.O.A.P method. The S stands for scripture, you write the address of the scripture you are reading that day and often I write a verse or two that stood out to me from the passage I was reading, the O stands for observation here you write things you observed from the passage , A stands for application here is where you take what you read that day and apply it to areas of your life that you need to repent of, do better at, or respond better in situations, and finally the P stands for prayer here you pray the scripture over yourself and pray that God goes before you in the day and that He helps you apply what you learned from the passage that day to what the day may bring. Journaling my time in reading helps me stay focused and centered on what I am doing in that moment. When it comes to memorization, this is one I need to do better at, making not cards with verses you would like to memorize and going over them daily is a good way to do it, having an accountability partner who is also memorizing the same verse who is going to ask you to quote it to them is helpful, there are apps on your phone designed for helping you memorize scripture for example there is an app called bible memory that helps with this. Meditation on the Word daily falls into the same category as reading for me. The way I tend to do it is if I do my reading in the morning then in the evening before bed I am meditating on scripture and on the day and sitting with God on all those things. But if I do my reading in the evening then in the morning I will pick a few verses to meditate on as I get ready or eat breakfast or go on a walk. These are not the only ways to do these but are practical ways that have helped me be persistent until I was consistent. There have been many times where I was being consistent and then life hit and I fell out of it and had to start back at being persistent in it as I built up my consistency again. Just like in all things in your walk with God leaning into Him and asking Him to help you have a hunger for the Word and a burning desire to be in it daily is what ultimately starts that fire to be in His word daily.

Bible intake is vital to your walk with God because what you put into your mind good or bad shapes how you view the world and how you interact with those around you. So if you are consuming the bible daily you are going to view the world and those around you as God views them which will help you love them better. It also helps refine you as a Christian and is the light that reveals things with in you that need to be chiseled away, reshaped, renewed, or refined with in you so that you can be more of the person God created you to be. It also gives you a firm foundation to stand on so that when you engage with those who are far from God you know what you are talking about and you can guide them with love through what God says and how He views each and every person in the world. It provides a guiding light in seasons where it seems like everything is unknown and you feel like you are in the dark. Scripture guides you through these seasons because it makes you more aware that the light of the world is holding your hand and guiding you through. Bible intake keeps your heart, mind, and soul centered on God always through any storm He is who your gaze is transfixed on because you are pouring truth into yourself daily. Daily bible intake also helps you love those around you so much better because you are relying on God to help you love as He loves. Bottom line bible intake is vital to your growth, grace for others, compassion, strength, guidance, rest, and so much more in the walk with God.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. My hope is that it has helped you and given you some insight on bible intake and why it is vital to your walk with God. Next week we will look at the spiritual discipline of prayer. I hope you will join me next week! I pray your week is great, if you have questions or thoughts feel free to message me on here, email me, or message me on Facebook or instagram!