RPS 15 – Essential Ingredients of a Great Morning Routine

What you do in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. In this episode, I talk about the bare minimum requirements of a Christian's morning routine. And while everyone's morning will look a little different, these principles will help guide you in creating a morning routine that gets you oriented, organized, and ready to obey the Lord throughout your day.

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This outline encompasses the key themes and suggestions presented in the video, emphasizing the importance of establishing a morning routine centered on faith, organization, and obedience. The structured format allows for easy navigation through the various principles and recommendations discussed by the speaker.

00:00 Every believer wants to
have a closer walk with God. Nevertheless, many Christians
still struggle to read their Bibles consistently. Today, I want to show you eight
tips for how to make Bible reading a consistent daily habit.
00:21 Hey, my name is Reagan Rose. On this channel, I talk about
a biblical approach to personal productivity so that you can make the
most of your life for God's glory. Make sure you stick around to the
very end of the video, because the last point I give is the one
that kind of ties it all together.
00:36 So before we jump into the first tip,
I think it's helpful to think through why it is that it's so hard to be
consistent in reading our Bibles. We live in a time of unprecedented
access to the Word of God. I mean, if you speak English, you've
got approximately four bazillion translations that are good.
00:53 You've got tools online, we've got
Bible software, we've got excellent preachers and teachers we can listen
to, commentaries up the wazoo. You got everything you would need if
you wanted to be a student of the Bible. But we still don't read consistently. So why is that?
01:09 I think the main reason is we are more
distracted than we've ever been before. Our options for what we can do
with our time are almost limitless. And that makes it hard for us
to focus our attention on the things that really matter. And so we need to make a plan and we
need to do things that are going to
01:28 help us fight against that distraction,
and instead focus our intention on what we really want to do, which
is to draw near to God in His Word. So tip number one is make a plan. You may want to read the Bible, but
good intentions apart from good plans are really just good for nothing.
01:45 And what I mean is you
need a Bible reading plan. You need to decide in advance what you're
going to read in the Word each day. You can't just randomly flip open to
different passages and think, "oh, I guess I'll read this chapter today." I mean, you definitely can do
that, but the problem is you're not
02:00 going to stick with it for long. And there are tons and tons of
great Bible reading plans out there. You just need to pick one! I'll link you in the description to
some different Bible reading plans that are available that I think are good.
02:12 And just pick one. Choose one that you're going
to do and then commit to it. And go through each section each day. Once you decide what you're going
to be reading each day, you need to decide when you're going to do that.
02:24 And that's tip number
two, pick a time to read. Personally, I think it's best to read
the Bible when you first wake up. It kind of sets the tone for the day. It puts your eyes on Jesus Christ
rather than on your phone or on whatever else is going on.
02:39 I think it's the best way to start your
day, but you can plan to read the Bible at other times too, on your lunch break,
maybe after work, maybe before bed. The point though is pick a time
and don't be vague about it. Make a really specific plan. Decide I'm going to
read it in the morning.
02:55 When in the morning at this time? Where at that time? On this couch. Which Bible are you going to read? Are you going to bring a notebook?
03:01 Figure out the details, make a
plan, make it specific so that you know exactly what to do each day. Third, organize for success. If you want to make bible
reading a consistent daily habit you need to organize.
03:16 So we've already done some of this through
making a plan through picking when we're going to do it, but you also need to
deal with some more of those details. So here's four organization tips
that I think can make your Bible reading time more likely to stick. First, always read in the same spot.
03:30 Second, keep your space clean. Nobody wants to read
in a messy environment. Third print out your Bible reading plan. Don't try to keep it in your head. And don't put it on your
phone where you're going to
03:40 check that and get distracted. Fourth, when you finish your reading
each day, open your Bible or move your bookmark to the next spot for tomorrow. Set yourself up so that the next day,
there's this little friction as possible between you getting back into the Word
and doing the next section of your plan.
03:56 When you organize yourself to read
the Bible each day, you're much more likely to actually do it. The fourth tip for reading the Bible every
day as a habit is avoid distractions. Listen, I love the Bible apps on my phone
and on my tablet and on my computer. I love that stuff.
04:12 I love technology. But it's distracting. There's too many things I could be doing
on my phone than reading the Bible. And so at least for me, when
I try to read the Bible on my phone, it always goes poorly.
04:25 I'm a big advocate for reading in
a physical, paper Bible, because it keeps the distractions far away. In fact, I would tell you don't
even keep your phone nearby. Don't even give you the
option of going on it. If you're getting up and reading
your Bible in the morning,
04:41 just leave your phone charging,
leave it far away from yourself. Just remove every temptation
to "check something real quick" and just focus on the Word. Number five, use helps. Use resources that are gonna help
you read the Bible every day.
04:57 Many a noble voyage into the
habit of Bible reading has been scuttled on the rocks of ambition. Oftentimes we get excited
about reading the Bible. We get excited about making this
a habit again, and what do we do? We bite off way more than we can chew.
05:12 We end up saying, "I'm going
to read the Bible in 30 days!" Okay. Maybe you, maybe you can. I believe in you. You can do that.
05:21 But look, I think it's more important
that we make it a habitual daily thing, than we make it about reading
as much of the Bible as possible. I want a lifetime of being a Bible
readernot just little sprints here and there every few months or every couple
of years where I get back into it. Don't be too proud to use a devotional
book or use a good study Bible.
05:45 There are great resources for these. I'll link to some of
those in the description. I love the MacArthur study Bible. It is awesome. One of the things that can happen when
you're reading the Bible is you get bored
05:55 because you don't know what's going on. That's okay. Use some helps. Use a study Bible. It'll give you some help in knowing what's
happening, giving you a little context.
06:05 Just reading the Bible and not
understanding what it actually means isn't all that helpful. You need to know what's happening. And so use a good devotional or use a
study Bible to help you understand it. Number six is enlist accountability.
06:20 God gave His Word, not just individual
believers, but to His church. You have other believers, or you
ought to have other believers, in your life at your church, read together. Pick a plan with your small group or with
some other people who you're close with at church, or maybe with your spouse or with
a friend or with people in your family.
06:40 It doesn't matter. Just get a group of other
believers and decide together what you're going to read through. That sort of holy peer pressure keep
you on track with making sure you're actually reading the Bible every day.
06:53 And it can be really simple. My wife had a group of ladies at a
previous job where they were reading through a book of the Bible together,
and then they'd get together once a week for lunch and they would talk about it. That's all it was.
07:06 They didn't do something crazy or intense. They just picked some stuff to read
through and then they discussed it later. You can make it that simple. The point is accountability helps
you to be more consistent and more habitual with reading the Bible.
07:19 And number seven is apply
what you're learning. Look, we don't read the Bible
just so we can know more. We read it so we can understand
and believe and obey. And so you want to see your reading in
the Bible actually changing your life. Be deliberate about this, what
you're studying, what you're reading
07:39 each day, think through, pray it
back to God and try to actually put into action what you're learning. If you're reading about some of the
one, another commands from the new Testament, consider how you might
love other people in your church more, what specifically could you do?
07:54 How could you apply that? If you're reading the Psalms, think
about how, the way that the Psalmist phrase things, how that could
influence the way that you pray. Or how you think about God
when you're worshiping Him. Deliberately, try to take what you're
learning in the word each day and actually
08:09 apply it to your life and you'll see
that not only are you getting more out of it, but you're wanting to read more. The habit of reading the Word
begins to stick more as you see the results from it in your life. And the final tip I have for you for
reading the Bible consistently as a habit
08:25 is number eight: start a morning routine. So a Christian morning routine is
basically where you wake up a little bit earlier than you would have, and
you do some very specific things. Things like studying the Bible, praying,
exercise, journaling, and a few other kind of self-development activities so
that you are ensuring that every day
08:47 you're making progress in growing with
the Lord and in your personal life. The number one thing you can do is
start having a daily morning routine. And I have created an entire free
mini-course on how to do this, along with a free PDF planner that gives you
all the steps you need to take to start building your own morning routine.
09:07 I'll share a link to
that in the description. And that mini-course and that
planner are totally free. I just want to give you a resource
that's going to help you grow. I've also created an entire paid
online course about morning routines that goes into way more depth.
09:20 And it is just a step by step guide
that walks you through how to build a morning routine of your own. That's going to give you the plan and
the motivation you need to actually start getting on track with your
devotions and with your personal life. Check out my paid course,
it's called POWER Mornings.
09:36 You can learn more in the video here. And for more videos on a Christian
approach to personal productivity, don't forget to subscribe and
ring the notification bell. I'll see you guys in the next video.