SELF-DISCIPLINE: How to overcome distractions in Bible study!

How often have you thought to yourself,

” I would really like to study my Bible but I don’t have enough time.” 

How is it possible that some of us are able to accomplish so much in a day AND be able to study the Bible and get deeper understanding of God’s Word while some of us struggle just getting the daily things done?! Don’t we all have 24 hours in a day?

If you are in any way like me, you might actually have enough time, however, you might have chosen to use it for something else.

A lot of us are very distracted by many good and not so good things. Let me ask you, how many facebook or playstation games did you play today? How many hours of TV did you watch? According to marketing charts, the average American user spends 3.2 hours on social media and most of that is on the phone or tablet! How much more would we know about God’s word if we just used 1/3 of that time.

There are so many things that try to get our attention and that give us instant gratification! It’s so much easier to look at our news feed than to actually get into the Word.

To overcome distractions and actually start studying it requires      SELF-DISCIPLINE!

According to the Oxford dictionary, self-discipline is “the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses”.

I know, I know, you probably just twitched hearing that word while simultaneously thinking of the last time you chose to eat 2 pieces of chocolate cake instead of running towards the vegetable platter.  Self-discipline? Me? Yeah right!

So how do you control those feelings, overcome weaknesses and choose to STUDY YOUR BIBLE instead of running to social media or your remote control. Here are 4 tips that will get you started:

1) Remind yourself of the GREATER OUTCOME! Picture it in your head!

Just as an athlete dreams about the Olympic medal when he doesn’t feel like practicing, you have to remind yourself and dream about the benefit and outcome of studying the Bible. WHY DO YOU want to study the Bible?  What’s the benefit of it? Picture the outcome in your head and remember that picture the next time you don’t feel like it.

2) ACT yourself into FEELING!

“You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action. So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it.”  – Samuel Smiles

What else can I say? I don’t think that there are many times you really feel like studying God’s Word from the start. Bible Study is just the opposite of what your flesh wants.  But when you force yourself to sit down with your Bible, take out your colored pencils and start color coding your Bible or doing those paragraph titles, I’m sure that you will get into it. The feelings will come. As Nike says, JUST DO IT!

3) Make a DEADLINE and TELL SOMEONE about it!

Tell someone, “I want to study the book of Romans by the summer!” Even better, offer to run a Bible Study on it…believe me, all of the sudden self-discipline will start to pour in, even if it is just on the day before you run that Bible Study!  Another way to tell someone is to announce it on the world wide web. Plan to blog about your studies on a weekly basis and announce it to all your friends on facebook! Yep, it helps! I speak from experience!

Last but not least,

4) Turn that PHONE OFF!

Seems so easy but than again, so hard! But I know how it goes… let’s say you got started in your Bible study and you just need to look up something really quickly about that particular Bible verse. Yeah right! All of the sudden, you notice that email notification popping up or your fingertip automatically goes to your facebook account and you are stuck once again – unfortunately not in the Bible!

So don’t do it! Turn off that phone! Believe me, you will not miss out on anything in the time you’ve decided to put aside for God and getting into the Word! I see your doubting face but really, try it! It’s so worth it!

So, what are the things that distract YOU and keep you from opening up that Bible? Would love to hear your feedback!