Reading, study and meditation on the Bible must be part of our daily routine. It should not need to be dusted off to take to church on Sunday, but on that day when we do take it to hand it should feel comfortable and familiar from use throughout the week.

Perhaps you had the same experience in elementary school. When it was time to do math or English, the teacher would ask a student to distribute the textbooks stored in the cabinet. As the class drew to a close those textbooks would be collected and returned, ready for the next time they’d be needed.

It can work like that at church. Not that people leave their Bibles there, the lost and found table notwithstanding. They do take them home. It’s not unusual, however, for those Bibles to sit unopened until the next Sunday. The upshot is the same. The books are used only when they are officially expected by the teacher.

That might work with math texts or English literature books, but it cannot with the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. It is given for our spiritual sustenance and growth in grace.

As we daily partake of foods that sustain us physically, we must daily pull up to the table of God’s Word to partake, not wolfing down the meal but savoring it. Read Psalm 119 and you find a God-breathed brochure enticing you to the nourishment, nutrients and fortifications given in that Word.  And not just for intellectual stimulation, but for life lived in communion with God.

When we read a textbook, we’re to do so not simply to get it done. Even if we do, there is still the test to come that makes demands of us. The contents require consideration and are best served when we read to learn. We learn by paying attention, observing and gleaning.  The pages should be covered with the fingerprints of our minds as we try to come to grips with what is being communicated.

How much more should we attend to God’s Word and interact with it! Redemption is spread upon its pages. The hero portrayed is the Messiah of God—promised, prefigured, prophesied, predicted, proclaimed, present, and throughout, praised. The pages are saturated with love and scented with grace, supremely palatable to those whose spiritual senses have been awakened by its Author.

It is a banquet for the soul. Our story is embedded.

Reading, study and meditation on the Bible must be part of our daily routine. It should not need to be dusted off to take to church on Sunday, but on that day when we do take it to hand it should feel comfortable and familiar from use throughout the week.

Stan Gale is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is the author of the book, Why Must We Forgive? This article appeared on his blog and is used with permission.