Exposed To the Word

In order to grow and be fruitful in the Christian life, it is important that we know God better; we do that by careful and regular time with God's Word. Proverbs 30 reminds us:
5 Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
6 Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Through relating to God through His Word, we allow Him to perform that purifying process - His Word is pure, as we read, and as we look into Scripture, we can find out who we truly are: He shows us our identity in Christ and exposes areas that need to be brought into submission to the Lord.  We also recognize from verse 5 in Proverbs 30 that He is our protector: He provides the resources necessary in order to stand strong against the deception of the enemy.  We can set out to walk in truth.

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We can see ourselves in light of who God is and who He has made us to be by looking into the Word of God. His Word provides instruction and directs us to the power we need in order to reflect Christ. James 1 states:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

With more time on our hands during the COVID pandemic last year, it appears that people were using that opportunity to spend time in God's Word.  But, there are still indicators that use of the Bible lags behind the use of a particular social media platform.

The Lifeway Research website reports:

According to the American Bible Society’s 2021 State of the Bible study, the percentage of adult Bible users saw a marked increase this year. The study defines Bible users as individuals who read, listen to, or pray with the Bible at least three to four times a year outside of a church service or event. In 2021, 50% of Americans were Bible users, amounting to 128 million people.

That's up from the 124 million registered in the summer of 2020, and a bit behind the highest mark in the last 10 years - 129 million in 2014.  Those seem to be rather robust numbers, but when you narrow it down to just Americans who "interact" with the Bible daily, only 11% actually registered a positive response.  14% say they have such interaction multiple times a week.  That's about half of the overall 50% who are considered "Bible users."

The Lifeway Research article notes that:

In June 2020, as COVID-19 began to spread in the U.S., the State of the Bible study noted a drop in the percentage of Americans who never engage with the Bible. It dropped from 35% in 2019 to 31% in 2020, before falling further in 2021.

When asked directly, 24% of Americans say their Bible reading increased in the past year. Most (63%) say it stayed the same, while 9% say it decreased.

The article also referenced Lifeway's own study from two years ago which showed that about a third of Protestant churchgoers read the Bible every day, with another quarter saying they read it once a week - add it together, and that's still under 6-in-10 Protestant churchgoers that crack the Bible weekly.

It also references a Lifeway Research survey from last year showing that 66% of evangelical Christians use Facebook every day.  By contrast, just under 4-in-10 use YouTube.  And, 32% of evangelicals open God's Word daily.

That's not enough. Not in a culture where information and entertainment sources are plenty and we become prone to get distracted.

This is a culture that undoubtedly needs a Christian witness - and we have to search the Scriptures and allow God to speak to us so that we might know who He is, recognize who we are in Him and what it takes to live the Christian life.  To be a doer of the Word takes dedication to following God's instructions and remaining tethered to Him - we can't do the Word if we don't know it.

Even though our time in our local church activities has been at a low ebb over the past two years, God was still at work and there was an opportunity to build time in God's Word into our altered schedules. And, some took advantage of that.  Now, we can evaluate how we can efficiently use our time during the "new normal," in order to build that time with God into our daily routine.