There is nothing more important in this life then God and His Word and studying His Word with Him. There simply is no "reason" that's good enough to get away from it.
Yes, I don't have to "go to work" anymore and my children are all grown, but the sad thing is that God's Word shouldn't take second place to our jobs, families, etc. Let me share my heart with you about this... God and His Word should always come first, no matter how "busy" we are. That's what He means by the first commandment;
Exodus 20:3 (ESV) — 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
Matthew 6:24 (ESV) — 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV) — 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
and He tells us that when we try to serve someone or something else before Him, that it won't work... When He says we're to love God will "all" our hearts and souls and minds, that means we're to make Him first and seek Him not for what He can do for us or give us, but instead for who He is, just because He is God. If we really understood that and understood how great and awesome He is, we would never be so brash as to think we could do without studying His Word every day...
Luke 12:5 (ESV) — 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
In our time especially the world has made us very complacent toward God; we really don't fear Him as we should. (The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom) We constantly make excuses for ourselves in how "busy" we are that we just don't have "time" to study or pray etc, and yet the real truth of the matter is that we don't have time NOT to study and pray!
I include myself in this as well. Yes, I study His Word for many hours a day now and before I was hurt, when I was working and raising my children, after I was saved, I studied it for an hour a day or more, but before that, during the years that I wasn't saved, though I always called myself a Christian, I didn't study His Word...I'd read it sometimes, but that's about it.
Don't get me wrong, when I was first saved, the Holy Spirit drew me to His Word, as He does all who are saved. But I too came up with lots of excuses... "I'm tired", "i don't feel well", I was interrupted", "I got busy", "I had to go to work" etc. He quickly showed me though that it was a matter of priorities and that I had to choose what was most important to me. Him or the world. I chose Him. He showed me too that I had to choose a time when I would be least likely to be interrupted and that I had to stick to it and insist on it even. And so I have. There were still many times when I "didn't feel like it", especially after I got hurt. Again He showed me it's a choice we have to make and it all depended on how important He was to me. Again I chose Him.
Each time I would feel like I was just too sick, too tired, or in too much pain to study, I would again choose Him; open my bible and proceed to talk to Him and study anyway. And you know what? He blessed me every single time! And I don't mean in some "spiritual" way, though He did that too, but before very long, I would realize that I wasn't feeling sick or in pain anymore, and was just enjoying being with Him and studying. Oh, the pain was still there, it was just somehow suppressed and I knew that if I focused on it, it would come back like a lion. See, the Lord will ALWAYS make a way, and bless us for being obedient. All we have to do is take the first step, be willing and obedient and open our bibles, after that, He takes over and He gives us the strength to study, He removes the fatigue, the illness, the pain, and puts it off to the side somewhere so it won't interfere with what we're doing. The more we do so, the more we'll want to, and the more we continue, the more enjoyable it will become, if we're including Him in the study and not doing it in our own so called intelligence and understanding.
I have felt for the last couple of years especially that our time here is running out and that if we're going to be ready for our Lord's return we've got to do it now, not tomorrow! That's why I've pushed, pleaded, begged and harassed people to get into His Word and join these studies now. Once He comes, it's all over and there won't be another chance. We can't make up for what we didn't do once we're in Heaven. God's Word teaches us about Him and His ways and His Will for us. If we don't study it we cannot do His Will, no matter how we try or want to. We can't be obedient to Him in anything if we're not studying His Word daily because that's how He speaks to us today. So many people think that they are, but they're only fooling themselves. God's Word teaches us everything we need to know and understand in order to live this life His Way, and it also corrects us when we're doing wrong. It doesn't just tell us we're doing wrong, it also shows us what we need to do to make it right. His Word enables us to grow to spiritual maturity which is what He wants for each of us. What so many don't seem to realize is that this isn't a suggestion, it's a command: and we can't handle His Word correctly if we don't study it.
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV) — 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Plus, this isn't a command from Paul, it's a command from the Lord. Besides that, there are so more verses in the bible that tell us that we need to study His Word daily that it's mind blowing! I have a feeling they're there because this is so very important, and yet today, most people just don't pay attention. In fact, today, most people only hear the Word when they go to church and rarely open their bibles on their own, or if they do, it's to "read" them a few minutes. I don't know how many times I've seen the question "how much do we have to read every day"? What they're really saying is that they want to know what the very minimum is that they can get away with reading so that they've done their "duty". That's enough to make me cry! It's not just about duty, it's about love! After all the Lord did for us, we can't spare an hour a day to study His Word?????
I recently posted a thread about the things that show that someone is really saved, and that might be an eye opener for some folks. The first thing is "a love for God". Let me share a quote from that thread:
John 1:14 (ESV) — 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus IS the Word. We often say how we would have loved to have been here when He was here, and yet He is in every word in our bibles and we ignore them! That just doesn't make any sense!
As you can see, this is a topic that's really important to me. (and I would hope and pray that it would be to everyone else as well) God's Word is sufficient for ALL we need, yet so many Christians ignore it. Or they'll study other people's books about what the bible says instead of study scripture for themselves and they consider that they're bible study. Well, I'm afraid that the Lord doesn't consider that Bible study. That's simply reading a book for pleasure, it's not studying His Word. When people have problems in their lives, what do they do? Do they run to the only one that can really help them and His Word? Nope. They run to the store and buy self help books, or even so called "Christian" self help books, or they'll go to counselors or faith healers or all kinds of things, but they will not spend time every day studying His Word with Him.
John 16:13 (ESV) — 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Often I've met people that seem to think that the Holy Spirit is just going to automatically put all the right answers in their minds and that they don't have to do a thing on their own. While the Holy Spirit is certainly capable of doing that, and on occasion even will, the normal, regular way the Holy Spirit operates in our lives is to draw us to the Word of God in our Bibles and inspire us to study it. When we study our bibles with Him, then he guides us through His Word to show us all Truth. The more we study, the more He reveals to us through His Word, and the more we grow to be more like Jesus.
I could talk all day long about this but really I just desperately want people to know and understand that everything they could possibly want or need is in God's Word and His Word is sufficient to meet all our needs if we will only study it.
Part 2
Feeding on the manna is a picture of us getting our daily spiritual nutrition through God's Word. It's His Word that strengthens us, changes us from the inside out, heals us, enables us to do His will etc. Without it, we're only fooling ourselves because we're not relying on Him, we're relying on our own strength and we don't have any. If we don't study His Word daily, we're literally starving the new nature He gave us at salvation and causing it to be weak and ineffective. just as the Jews couldn't live on yesterdays manna, so we can't live without time spent with Him today in His Word. His Word is our milk (1 Pet. 2:2), bread (Matt. 4:4), meat (1 Cor. 3:1–2; Heb. 5:11–14), and honey (Ps. 119:103).
Note that without a steady diet of studying His Word with Him, we are easy prey for false teachers and cults.
Matthew 22:29 — 29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
Without that steady diet of studying His Word with Him, we cannot experience His promises, such as this one...notice that we get that Grace and Peace through studying!
2 Peter 1:2–4 — 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
So, when we don't study, it leaves us bereft of many of God's promises and His help, for we're not being obedient to Him.
Now, about the problem of not being able to study. We know for a fact from God's Word that God never expects us to do anything that He doesn't give us the capability of doing. In other words, He will never tell us to do something we are incapable of doing. We might be incapable of doing it without His help, but with His help we can do everything He tells us to do.
Satan WILL try and convince us that we cannot study God's Word because that's how we defeat him and he certainly doesn't want that! He uses all kinds of tricks to get us not to study regularly. There's the standard, "I don't have time". Well, then you need to make time. That's not what I say, that's what God says. Your flesh will also rebel and you won't "feel like it" at times. Again, God says it doesn't matter what we "feel like". We are to study anyway. Our lives don't belong to us. It's not up to us to decide if we have the time or if we feel like it. The Master who bought us has told us to do this and expects us to obey Him. Then there's always the one where Satan confuses us and we feel that we can't concentrate well enough to study. When that happens, it should be a big RED FLAG that you're being messed with and that Satan doesn't want you to study! Why? Because God is not a God of confusion! That's Satan's hand, not God's!
1 Corinthians 14:33 — 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
God tells us that we are to put Him first and submit to Him. He also tells us to resist the devil. As I've said many times before, every time we take a single step toward God, God rejoices and blesses us for it. This is especially true concerning studying His Word with Him.
James 4:7–8 — 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
He's not going to let Satan have you unless you yourself insist by not studying His Word. If instead, you come near to Him--and you can't get any nearer then His Word, He will come near to you. That's a promise! We're told to expect Satan to try and stop us from being obedient and that we need to be alert for that. We're also told to use "self control".
1 Peter 5:8–9 — 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
It takes self control to stick to a regular scheduled study time, but the great part is that the more you obey, the more self control and faithfulness you will have because the Lord Himself will grow it in you! Those are both fruit of the Spirit--the Holy Spirit who is guiding you as You study God's Word with Him.
One other reason I've heard for not studying is "I'm not smart enough" or words to that effect. The apostles were uneducated fishermen!!!! We all have more "education" then they did! We don't need education or a high IQ to study the bible. God made every single one of us. And He knows exactly what each of us can do. He provides His Holy Spirit to help each of us in whatever way we need so that we can understand His Word.
In fact, there are many people with a great many degrees in theology that don't have the first clue what God's Word means! And there are just as many youngsters with little education or IQ that DO know His Word for the Lord has revealed it to them.
Matthew 11:25–26 — 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
1 Corinthians 1:20 — 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
John 14:26 — 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Notice that our Lord says that the Holy Spirit WILL teach us, He doesn't say that He will "try to if we're smart enough". God has also provided us with a great many wonderful teachers to help us as well as commentaries and study guides. While we have to have discernment in choosing which ones to do, at least here on FH you know we won't post anything that isn't from an approved teacher. (approved by God, not me)
Friends, please don't let Satan, your flesh or the world stop you from studying God's Word with Him. It's the greatest privilege we have in this world once we're saved and through it we are given all we need for this life. When you don't, you are giving up so many blessings because so many of them are contingent on us studying His Word and knowing it....
Ephesians 1:18–20 (NIV) — 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
I see people hurting and I hurt for them and I want so desperately to help them know what the Lord can and will do for them, but most simply will not pick up their bibles and study them every day..... Sorry, but this is something that I pray for each member here every day....because it's so very important and I desperately want to see each and every person grow and reach the potential that God has for them and get every single possible reward that the Lord has for them. When I pray, I imagine myself standing in Heaven and cheering each and every member here on as the Lord presents their rewards to them on the day of the Bema Judgment. Unfortunately that won't happen until everyone starts studying His Word daily and really putting Him first....
Yes, I don't have to "go to work" anymore and my children are all grown, but the sad thing is that God's Word shouldn't take second place to our jobs, families, etc. Let me share my heart with you about this... God and His Word should always come first, no matter how "busy" we are. That's what He means by the first commandment;
Exodus 20:3 (ESV) — 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
Matthew 6:24 (ESV) — 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV) — 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
and He tells us that when we try to serve someone or something else before Him, that it won't work... When He says we're to love God will "all" our hearts and souls and minds, that means we're to make Him first and seek Him not for what He can do for us or give us, but instead for who He is, just because He is God. If we really understood that and understood how great and awesome He is, we would never be so brash as to think we could do without studying His Word every day...
Luke 12:5 (ESV) — 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
In our time especially the world has made us very complacent toward God; we really don't fear Him as we should. (The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom) We constantly make excuses for ourselves in how "busy" we are that we just don't have "time" to study or pray etc, and yet the real truth of the matter is that we don't have time NOT to study and pray!
I include myself in this as well. Yes, I study His Word for many hours a day now and before I was hurt, when I was working and raising my children, after I was saved, I studied it for an hour a day or more, but before that, during the years that I wasn't saved, though I always called myself a Christian, I didn't study His Word...I'd read it sometimes, but that's about it.
Don't get me wrong, when I was first saved, the Holy Spirit drew me to His Word, as He does all who are saved. But I too came up with lots of excuses... "I'm tired", "i don't feel well", I was interrupted", "I got busy", "I had to go to work" etc. He quickly showed me though that it was a matter of priorities and that I had to choose what was most important to me. Him or the world. I chose Him. He showed me too that I had to choose a time when I would be least likely to be interrupted and that I had to stick to it and insist on it even. And so I have. There were still many times when I "didn't feel like it", especially after I got hurt. Again He showed me it's a choice we have to make and it all depended on how important He was to me. Again I chose Him.
Each time I would feel like I was just too sick, too tired, or in too much pain to study, I would again choose Him; open my bible and proceed to talk to Him and study anyway. And you know what? He blessed me every single time! And I don't mean in some "spiritual" way, though He did that too, but before very long, I would realize that I wasn't feeling sick or in pain anymore, and was just enjoying being with Him and studying. Oh, the pain was still there, it was just somehow suppressed and I knew that if I focused on it, it would come back like a lion. See, the Lord will ALWAYS make a way, and bless us for being obedient. All we have to do is take the first step, be willing and obedient and open our bibles, after that, He takes over and He gives us the strength to study, He removes the fatigue, the illness, the pain, and puts it off to the side somewhere so it won't interfere with what we're doing. The more we do so, the more we'll want to, and the more we continue, the more enjoyable it will become, if we're including Him in the study and not doing it in our own so called intelligence and understanding.
I have felt for the last couple of years especially that our time here is running out and that if we're going to be ready for our Lord's return we've got to do it now, not tomorrow! That's why I've pushed, pleaded, begged and harassed people to get into His Word and join these studies now. Once He comes, it's all over and there won't be another chance. We can't make up for what we didn't do once we're in Heaven. God's Word teaches us about Him and His ways and His Will for us. If we don't study it we cannot do His Will, no matter how we try or want to. We can't be obedient to Him in anything if we're not studying His Word daily because that's how He speaks to us today. So many people think that they are, but they're only fooling themselves. God's Word teaches us everything we need to know and understand in order to live this life His Way, and it also corrects us when we're doing wrong. It doesn't just tell us we're doing wrong, it also shows us what we need to do to make it right. His Word enables us to grow to spiritual maturity which is what He wants for each of us. What so many don't seem to realize is that this isn't a suggestion, it's a command: and we can't handle His Word correctly if we don't study it.
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV) — 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Plus, this isn't a command from Paul, it's a command from the Lord. Besides that, there are so more verses in the bible that tell us that we need to study His Word daily that it's mind blowing! I have a feeling they're there because this is so very important, and yet today, most people just don't pay attention. In fact, today, most people only hear the Word when they go to church and rarely open their bibles on their own, or if they do, it's to "read" them a few minutes. I don't know how many times I've seen the question "how much do we have to read every day"? What they're really saying is that they want to know what the very minimum is that they can get away with reading so that they've done their "duty". That's enough to make me cry! It's not just about duty, it's about love! After all the Lord did for us, we can't spare an hour a day to study His Word?????
I recently posted a thread about the things that show that someone is really saved, and that might be an eye opener for some folks. The first thing is "a love for God". Let me share a quote from that thread:
Quote:
| But the regenerate person is set to love the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. His delight is in the infinite excellencies of God. God is the first and highest affection of his renewed soul. God has become his chief happiness and source of satisfaction. He seeks after God and thirsts for the living God......True saving faith doesn't believe in Christ so that Christ will make one happy. The heart that truly loves God desires to please God and glorify Him. Jesus taught that if someone loved their father and mother more than they loved Christ, they were not worthy of Him. |
Jesus IS the Word. We often say how we would have loved to have been here when He was here, and yet He is in every word in our bibles and we ignore them! That just doesn't make any sense!
As you can see, this is a topic that's really important to me. (and I would hope and pray that it would be to everyone else as well) God's Word is sufficient for ALL we need, yet so many Christians ignore it. Or they'll study other people's books about what the bible says instead of study scripture for themselves and they consider that they're bible study. Well, I'm afraid that the Lord doesn't consider that Bible study. That's simply reading a book for pleasure, it's not studying His Word. When people have problems in their lives, what do they do? Do they run to the only one that can really help them and His Word? Nope. They run to the store and buy self help books, or even so called "Christian" self help books, or they'll go to counselors or faith healers or all kinds of things, but they will not spend time every day studying His Word with Him.
John 16:13 (ESV) — 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Often I've met people that seem to think that the Holy Spirit is just going to automatically put all the right answers in their minds and that they don't have to do a thing on their own. While the Holy Spirit is certainly capable of doing that, and on occasion even will, the normal, regular way the Holy Spirit operates in our lives is to draw us to the Word of God in our Bibles and inspire us to study it. When we study our bibles with Him, then he guides us through His Word to show us all Truth. The more we study, the more He reveals to us through His Word, and the more we grow to be more like Jesus.
I could talk all day long about this but really I just desperately want people to know and understand that everything they could possibly want or need is in God's Word and His Word is sufficient to meet all our needs if we will only study it.
Part 2
I've had many people tell me they "can't study the bible" for
various reasons even though the one major thing God wants
and in fact commands us to do, is to study His Word.
1 Peter 2:2–3 — 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
God's Word is our food; it feeds the new nature we were given at our salvation. Without it, we cannot grow; without a regular diet of His Word, we become sick spiritually; we backslide (at the best) and we don't experience victory or God's peace.
Matthew 4:4 — 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus quoted this from the OT:
Deuteronomy 8:3 — 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Speaking of Manna, I'd like to share something about that with you too:
Exodus 16:4–5 — 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
1 Peter 2:2–3 — 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
God's Word is our food; it feeds the new nature we were given at our salvation. Without it, we cannot grow; without a regular diet of His Word, we become sick spiritually; we backslide (at the best) and we don't experience victory or God's peace.
Matthew 4:4 — 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus quoted this from the OT:
Deuteronomy 8:3 — 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Speaking of Manna, I'd like to share something about that with you too:
Exodus 16:4–5 — 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
Feeding on the manna is a picture of us getting our daily spiritual nutrition through God's Word. It's His Word that strengthens us, changes us from the inside out, heals us, enables us to do His will etc. Without it, we're only fooling ourselves because we're not relying on Him, we're relying on our own strength and we don't have any. If we don't study His Word daily, we're literally starving the new nature He gave us at salvation and causing it to be weak and ineffective. just as the Jews couldn't live on yesterdays manna, so we can't live without time spent with Him today in His Word. His Word is our milk (1 Pet. 2:2), bread (Matt. 4:4), meat (1 Cor. 3:1–2; Heb. 5:11–14), and honey (Ps. 119:103).
Note that without a steady diet of studying His Word with Him, we are easy prey for false teachers and cults.
Matthew 22:29 — 29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
Without that steady diet of studying His Word with Him, we cannot experience His promises, such as this one...notice that we get that Grace and Peace through studying!
2 Peter 1:2–4 — 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
So, when we don't study, it leaves us bereft of many of God's promises and His help, for we're not being obedient to Him.
Now, about the problem of not being able to study. We know for a fact from God's Word that God never expects us to do anything that He doesn't give us the capability of doing. In other words, He will never tell us to do something we are incapable of doing. We might be incapable of doing it without His help, but with His help we can do everything He tells us to do.
Satan WILL try and convince us that we cannot study God's Word because that's how we defeat him and he certainly doesn't want that! He uses all kinds of tricks to get us not to study regularly. There's the standard, "I don't have time". Well, then you need to make time. That's not what I say, that's what God says. Your flesh will also rebel and you won't "feel like it" at times. Again, God says it doesn't matter what we "feel like". We are to study anyway. Our lives don't belong to us. It's not up to us to decide if we have the time or if we feel like it. The Master who bought us has told us to do this and expects us to obey Him. Then there's always the one where Satan confuses us and we feel that we can't concentrate well enough to study. When that happens, it should be a big RED FLAG that you're being messed with and that Satan doesn't want you to study! Why? Because God is not a God of confusion! That's Satan's hand, not God's!
1 Corinthians 14:33 — 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
God tells us that we are to put Him first and submit to Him. He also tells us to resist the devil. As I've said many times before, every time we take a single step toward God, God rejoices and blesses us for it. This is especially true concerning studying His Word with Him.
James 4:7–8 — 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
He's not going to let Satan have you unless you yourself insist by not studying His Word. If instead, you come near to Him--and you can't get any nearer then His Word, He will come near to you. That's a promise! We're told to expect Satan to try and stop us from being obedient and that we need to be alert for that. We're also told to use "self control".
1 Peter 5:8–9 — 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
It takes self control to stick to a regular scheduled study time, but the great part is that the more you obey, the more self control and faithfulness you will have because the Lord Himself will grow it in you! Those are both fruit of the Spirit--the Holy Spirit who is guiding you as You study God's Word with Him.
One other reason I've heard for not studying is "I'm not smart enough" or words to that effect. The apostles were uneducated fishermen!!!! We all have more "education" then they did! We don't need education or a high IQ to study the bible. God made every single one of us. And He knows exactly what each of us can do. He provides His Holy Spirit to help each of us in whatever way we need so that we can understand His Word.
In fact, there are many people with a great many degrees in theology that don't have the first clue what God's Word means! And there are just as many youngsters with little education or IQ that DO know His Word for the Lord has revealed it to them.
Matthew 11:25–26 — 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
1 Corinthians 1:20 — 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
John 14:26 — 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Notice that our Lord says that the Holy Spirit WILL teach us, He doesn't say that He will "try to if we're smart enough". God has also provided us with a great many wonderful teachers to help us as well as commentaries and study guides. While we have to have discernment in choosing which ones to do, at least here on FH you know we won't post anything that isn't from an approved teacher. (approved by God, not me)
Friends, please don't let Satan, your flesh or the world stop you from studying God's Word with Him. It's the greatest privilege we have in this world once we're saved and through it we are given all we need for this life. When you don't, you are giving up so many blessings because so many of them are contingent on us studying His Word and knowing it....
Ephesians 1:18–20 (NIV) — 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
I see people hurting and I hurt for them and I want so desperately to help them know what the Lord can and will do for them, but most simply will not pick up their bibles and study them every day..... Sorry, but this is something that I pray for each member here every day....because it's so very important and I desperately want to see each and every person grow and reach the potential that God has for them and get every single possible reward that the Lord has for them. When I pray, I imagine myself standing in Heaven and cheering each and every member here on as the Lord presents their rewards to them on the day of the Bema Judgment. Unfortunately that won't happen until everyone starts studying His Word daily and really putting Him first.... 
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