Day 12: The Discipline of Study
Read it: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19, 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Live it:
Our reading today takes us through Paul and Silas’s visit to the community of the Bereans and then to Paul’s visit to the community of the Athenians. After Paul and Silas went to Berea, the Bereans searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were telling them the truth. In Athens, most of those in the community seemed preoccupied with discussing the latest ideas. Based on their response to the teachings, Athens seemed like a very noisy place, and Berea seemed peaceful and reflective.
There is a lot of noise in our lives every day. The noise of news, the noise of ideas, and the noise of negativity. Are you going to be preoccupied with the noise?
At Focus Church, we make our prayer service at 9:00 am a priority every Sunday. We take a break from whatever we are doing and rest in the Lord. Our 9:00 am prayer service is just like that. So much goes into preparing for our service, but at 9:00 am, everyone stops what they are doing, and we get together and focus on Jesus.
I would encourage you to do two things. First, make attending our 9:00 am prayer service a priority for you; it’s open to everyone. Maybe rest is something of a struggle for you, but prayer time is a great place to start to learn how to rest in the Lord, and then you can start doing the second thing, which is to integrate a personal prayer or reflection time into your everyday life. Make time in your day to stop what you are doing and focus on Jesus.
Ps. James