 When the Lord saved me 33 years ago, he put a desire in my heart for the word of God. That desire had really never been there, even though I read my Bible every day as every pastor's daughter and pastor's wife should do, but it really never took root in my heart because I didn't have the Holy Spirit within me. And I know that the reason it turned from a duty to a delight was because of the promise of the New Covenant. And I'm sure you all know the promise of the New Covenant in Ezekiel where it says that he will give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us. And he takes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. And he says, I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my ways. And so God did that for me over 33 years ago. He saved me. And even though that desire was put there, I did not know how to pursue the longing that I had as a young woman on how to get to know the Bible. And so I began to memorize books of the Bible. That was my husband's encouragement back then and still is today. But I began to memorize books of the Bible. And as I mentioned yesterday, that's one of the greatest joys of my life and one of the best Bible study methods I know. And as I go around and I teach women, I have found that even though many of them have also been regenerated and they also have that new spirit within them, that they struggle with daily discipline of Bible reading, study, memorization and prayer. And I shared with you even last night that my concern just in the last few years have been women that I know that I have discipled, I poured my life into who used to be disciplined in those things and they are vacating meaningful time in the Word with trivial pursuits. And the most common excuse that I hear today is I don't have time, which translated is I won't make the time because ladies, we will take time to do the things we want to do, right? I mean, probably many of us in this room, we choose leisure activities. I know many women, they browse recipes, you know, I don't know where they go, but they browse all these recipes. And by the way, you do all this browsing and they finally get this recipe you want to cook. And you know what? Your family eats it in five minutes. Have you ever noticed that? You spend all day slaving, you know, Thanksgiving or Christmas like, really? I took three days for this meal and you guys just consumed it in five minutes. And you know, I'm thinking, man, the biblical world, the biblical women would think we were nuts, you know, to be doing that. Women will spend two to four hours a day on social media, unnecessary talking and other activities in place of meaningful time with God. And then we wonder why we're not growing. Why don't I have victory over my sin? Why is my marriage in a mess? Why don't I have joy? Why don't I have peace? Where's the peace that's been promised to me? How come I'm not content? What's wrong? And ladies, more often than not, the problem lies with us. God hasn't failed us. The problem lies with us. Now, having said that, I do know women and I've met women who long to be disciplined in their time with God, but they don't know how, how to have meaningful time in the Word and prayer. And so with that in mind, what I want to do in this session is speak to you regarding the important topic of disciplining yourself in the Word and in prayer. And I want to give you 10 important keys, and I've got them in one of my favorite things I like to do in an acrostic, and I think you have it there in your outline. And the acrostic is discipline, and so you'll just be able to go down like that. Ladies, the first thing that you have to do, and we've talked about this this weekend, if you want to have meaningful time in the Word and prayer is you must have a desire, a desire for the Word and delight in praying. You must have a desire for the Word and a delight in praying. If you don't have a desire to be in the Word, then you won't be disciplined. I remember when my daughter was growing up, she took piano lessons, and she was quite good. I was impressed how quickly she picked it up. She was good. But you know what? She didn't enjoy it. She didn't have a desire for it. And as soon as we quit the lessons, her piano lessons, she quit playing. My daughter just turned 39 last week, and to my knowledge, she hasn't ever sat down and played the piano since she was a child, and we made her take piano lessons. Why? She doesn't have a desire. She doesn't want to play the piano. My friend, if you do not have a desire to know God's Word or to talk to God in prayer, then that's going to be a huge hindrance to meaningful time in the Word. In fact, I remember talking to a lady recently about her Bible reading, and she said she read every day, and I said, do you enjoy it? And she said no. She said no. There's no desire. If you don't have an appetite for the Word of God, we talked about this last night, but I would challenge you, make sure you're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Make sure. As I said, I read my Bible every day for 30 years, but had no meaning to me. I just read it and checked it off my to-do list. Make sure you're redeemed. Examine yourself. Make sure you're born again. Secondly, make sure, as we talked about last night from 1 Peter, I won't go over that. Make sure there's no sin that is hindering your desire for the Word. Make sure you're not filling your appetite with things of the world and not things of the Word. Make sure you're putting away all sin. Make sure you're not nibbling from the things of this world, or you will have a minimal appetite for the Word. Just like right now, they came out from the four corners, these four doors, and passed out plates of chocolate chip cookies to all of us. And we begin to nibble those in a few, an hour and 30 minutes when we're supposed to have lunch. I don't think any of you'd want careless about a taco bar, right? If you had six chocolate chip cookies right now and a big ol' fat glass of milk. So we talked about that last night. That takes away the things of the world, take away that appetite for spiritual food. Secondly, if you desire to be disciplined, this is the I, idols must be put away. Idols must be put away. You know, it's interesting when God gave the promise of the New Covenant. Do you know part of it was this? I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Now you might say, well, Susan, what do you mean idols must be put away? What's an idol? Well, an idol is simply something that you love more than God. What do you think about during the day? Where do you spend your time? Where's your energy spent? Maybe it's someone. Maybe you're more loyal to someone, a person than you are to God. Ladies, every one of us in this room have propensities to idolatry and a good exercise. And this is often an exercise I give to women who tell me they don't have time to be in the word. I give them this exercise to keep a journal for one week and write down what they do with their time. And you know it's very revealing the next week when we get together, we look at it and I'm like, well, let's see, you're spending two hours doing this frivolous activity and you know, a lot of it, most of it is social networking. But it's a revealer. Many times if we just keep a daily journal of what we do, where we spend our time, it's a revealer of idolatry. In fact, just a few months ago, I had a birthday and one of the gals I disciple, Maggie, she's an LPGA golf professional. And I told Maggie, I said, Maggie, I want a golf lesson for my birthday. And she said, okay. And I grew up playing softball and I love to be, you know, I like sports and I like to be active, I like to be outside. And so she gave me a golf lesson for my birthday. And when it was over, I went home and I texted her and I said, I'm pumped. I said, that was so much fun. And I started just kind of almost drooling, you know, man, I, you know, Tiger Woods, watch out, I'm coming, you know. And I told her, I said, I got the bug. I want to, you know, and then I started thinking, okay, Susan, hold on a minute. How much time does golf take? I know, because my husband used to golf. The money required to play the game and then I, you know, I pulled myself back in and I said, you know, Susan, golf could soon become an idol, a God that will take your loyalty away from the true God. Now, ladies, there's nothing wrong with playing golf, okay? There's nothing wrong with it. And I have hit balls from time to time since then with her. In fact, I usually go to the golf course and we hit for 30 minutes while we talk about things of the Lord. And she tells me what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right. And then we go into her office and we disciple together. But I certainly was given caution after my golf lesson that by the dear spirit of God, that golf could become my God, my idol, which would steal away my devotion from God. So we've got to put away idolatry, right? If you want to have a meaningful time in the word and prayer. The third thing you must do if you desire to have a disciplined time in the word and prayers to, this is the S on your acrostic, spend ample time. Spend ample time in the word and prayer. Ladies, you can't be stingy in your time with God. You must be generous. Was God generous to you in pouring out his son's blood on your behalf? That was a generous sacrifice he made, right? To save you from your sin, you're not going to go to hell. You're going to be an eternity with God forever. He was generous to the point that please the Father to bruise his son for you, for me. Ladies, in-depth Bible study takes time. Don't be stingy. Serious prayer takes time. You know, we used to sing a hymn. We don't sing it anymore. Take time to be holy. But few want to take the challenge, right? We want instant holiness like we want instant mashed potatoes, instant internet service, and an instant pot, whatever that is. I don't have one yet. But everyone says I need one, you know? Ladies, a disciplined, godly life is not for the faint hearted. It's not. This means you might need to get up early, stay up late, do what Susanna Wesley did. Do you know Susanna Wesley had 19 children for those of you that had six or seven? She got 19. And you know early in her life she vowed that she would never spend more time in leisure, entertainment than she did in prayer and Bible study? Even amid, and I'm reading from her biography, even amid the most complex and busy years of her life as a mother, she scheduled two hours every day for fellowship with God and time in his word. And she adhered to that faithfully. And of course, the challenge was finding a place in the house, you know, with 19 children running around. So here was her solution. She would bring her Bible to her favorite chair, throw her long apron up over her head, and form a tent. This became something akin to the tent of meeting, the tabernacle in the days of Moses in the Old Testament. Every person in the household from the smallest toddler to the oldest helper knew well to respect this signal. It was time for mom to be with God. When Susanna was under the apron, she was with God and she was not to be disturbed in case of an, unless, and there was an emergency. And there in the privacy of her little tent, she interceded for her husband and her children. And she plumbed the deep mysteries of God in the scriptures. This holy discipline equipped her with a thorough and a profound knowledge of the Bible. This woman had 19 children and yet she found, so girls, you can't even use that excuse. I knew a lady one time she would not have her children get out of bed until the morning until she came and got them. Because she said, this is mommy's time with God and mommy will be a better mommy if you let her have this time with God. So I make it my daily habit to rise at least two hours before I plan any other activity, even if Debbie and I have to catch an early flight out. And sometimes we do. Sometimes I pick her up at 3.30 or she picks me up at 3.30. So I get up at 1.30. Because I know that if I don't, that precious time will be gone. And the Lord always helps. He always sustains. But that's not the only time, even throughout the day. I'm dealing with women or praying or working on memory work or studying or talking theology with my husband or whatever goes on throughout the day. The fourth thing that will help you in being disciplined is the sea. Cultivate daily habits. Cultivate daily habits. Ladies, we all have habits of brushing our teeth, right? I hope you brushed your teeth this morning. If you didn't, well, don't come near me, no, just kidding. For me, I have daily habits, brush my teeth. I have one contact I wear. I put my contacts in, put my makeup on. I usually read the news in the morning because my husband's always saying, Susan, if you're going to go around speak to women, at least need to know who's the president and what's happening. So I have a daily habit of reading the news. I try to walk every day. I don't always get to, but I try to walk every day. But what about cultivating disciplines of reading the Bible, studying the Bible, memorizing the Bible, praying? I can honestly say that I cannot remember any day since my conversion that I have not been in the Word in prayer. And I cannot imagine not ever doing both unless I'm in a coma or divinely hindered. I just can't even imagine it. Now again, it might mean doing what Jesus did in Mark 135. He says he rose a great while before day and he went out into a solitary place and prayed. And then it says another place in the gospels that he spent all night in prayer. And ladies, if Jesus got in the flesh and needed to do so, then what's our need? It's even greater. Ladies, it might mean that you stay up after everyone's gone to bed. It might be saying no to something else you want to do. I've heard John MacArthur say others may, I may not. He's also said I have very little need in my life for entertainment. Maybe give up something. Ladies, you wouldn't think a day, think about going a day without cleaning your teeth, or at least I hope you wouldn't. So why would you think about going a day without cleaning your soul through the Word in prayer? Jesus said in John 15.3, now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you. Ladies, a helpful hint when you consider this principle is this. Many times you can be praying or memorizing the Word while you're exercising, putting on your makeup, showering and domestic things around the house. Have you ever considered that? I know a lot of women that use their car time to pray. My daughter doesn't like to read. She hates reading. In fact, she just broke her foot and she's like the 11th or 12th week in a cast and she's being forced to sit. So she told her dad for Father's Day she'd read a book. What book did he want her to read? And he said, I want you to read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler so you can learn to like to read. So she doesn't like to read but she listens to the Bible. And I've seen her listen to it when she's just going around through the day doing domestic things. She's not a reader but she will listen. There's a lot of ways that we can incorporate prayer and Bible reading or Bible listening just in the domestic things we do around the home. Next on our list of essentials is the eye. And don't let this scare you. It's important to understand proper hermeneutics. It's important to understand proper hermeneutics. Ladies, if you want meaningful time in Bible study, you must do it correctly. Studying random verses out of their context will lead to error. Daily devotional literature will lead to error and spiritual anemia. I know women that will not read the Bible but they'll read some kind of a devotional. That's not the pure milk of the word as we talked about last night. Now hermeneutics is not a scary word. Do not let that word scare you. It just simply means a method of interpretation. A method of interpretation. That's hermeneutics. When I study a portion of God's Word, as I mentioned last night, I memorize it first. That's the best Bible study method I know. Then I take a text. Let's say you want to study a certain portion of God's Word. What I do is I take that text. I put it on a Microsoft Word document. And then I begin to bombard it with questions, examples. Who, what, when, where, how, and why. For example, let's take John 3.16, a verse we all know. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So you take that verse and ask questions like, who is God? Who is His Son? What does begotten mean? What does the world mean? What is everlasting life? When did God give His Son? How does a person believe in Him? Why would a holy God love a sinful world? And this is what we call, you know, hermeneutics, you know, inductive Bible study. And can I say this? The more you observe, the more you bombard a text with questions, the more accurate your interpretation will be and your application. That's the problem. People take verses written out of their context and make them to believe whatever they want you to believe about them. And we have to study them in their context. Now I just ask a few questions. You know you could take John 3.16 and probably ask over a hundred questions about that verse alone if you were really wanting to do good Bible study. Let me say the more questions you ask, the more you observe, the more accurate your interpretation will be. The less you observe, the more likely you will be in error. Bible study takes time. Don't be stingy with God. After I do that, I endeavor to find answers from the text. I take all those questions and I try to find the answers not in commentaries. Okay? Commentaries are not infallible, right? They're men at best. And so I try to answer the questions from, guess what? Oh, the Bible, you know, this Bible we have. It's a great commentary on the Bible. And so I try to answer as many of those questions from the Bible itself. After that, if I still can't get the answers, I'll go to the original language, the Greek and the Hebrew, try to find out what the words mean. And that is imperative. Ladies, listen, words constantly change in meaning. When I was growing up, gay meant happy. Gay today does not mean happy. In fact, gays are not happy. But it means what? If I say gay, it means a homosexual or a lesbian. And so words are always changing in meaning. And so when you're doing Bible study, you need to look at what the original language meant. What is the Hebrew word? What is the Greek word? Again, don't be stingy in Bible study. It takes time. So it's imperative. We know what the original author was saying to the original audience. Now the last thing to do, if you want to develop good hermeneutics, you can look at commentaries. But I am always careful about the commentaries I read. Anytime I study a book of the Bible, I always ask my husband to pull from his library the most reliable commentaries he has. And in fact, recently I was getting ready to publish. My husband always goes through my books and checks them theologically before they're published. And the last one I published, he said, you might want to take that one quote out. And I said, why? He said, well, that guy apostatized before he died. I was like, oh, thanks for telling me. I'll take that out. So but usually he gets me commentaries that are very solid. I also like to study the church history. I like to study what was going on in that day so that I can understand more of the original audience and what was going on. But I turned to commentaries last because they're meant at best and they're not fallible. But I'll tell you the exciting thing. When you do Bible study yourself and you come to a conclusion of what God is saying and then you read a sound commentary and they said the same thing. I was like, yes, I came to the same conclusion they do. Well, how'd that happen? Because we have the same Holy Spirit living within us, right? That leads us into all truth. And so but it's exciting to discover it for yourself and not depend on other people. Now if you're studying a whole chapter, you might ask questions. And I think I saw some of this. I didn't read the program you got thoroughly. But when I'm studying a whole chapter, you might ask questions like this. What is the principal subject of this chapter? What's the main point of this chapter? Who are the persons in this chapter? What is this chapter teaching concerning Christ? What example is there for me to follow? What error for me to avoid? What is there a command here for me to obey? Is there a promise to claim? Is there a prayer for me to echo? These are good questions when reading your Bible, studying your Bible. Ladies, if you've never learned how to do effective Bible study, I would recommend a couple of books. First of all, I mentioned last night living by the book by Howard Hendricks who's now gone. But it's a 20 week course, which is excellent in how to do inductive Bible study. Also, there's a small book, a very small book, called The Joy of Discovery. The Joy of Discovery by Olita Wald, a B-A-L-D. It's a very short book, but it gives Bible study skills that will help you gain deeper insights into the Word of God. She teaches you how to do inductive Bible study. Ladies, when you do Bible study properly, it's exciting. And you will truly find joy in discovering. Ladies, Paul is clear to Timothy, but he writes to him in 2 Timothy study to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, right? We want to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Now, something that's imperative, but often neglected, is the P, pray before, during, and after your study time. And of course, pray daily. Pray before, during, and after your study time. And of course, you should be praying daily. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing. When I sit down, I endeavor, Lord, open my eyes. Help me to behold wonders things out of your law. As I'm writing, as I'm studying the Bible, I was like, Lord, help me to understand this text. What are you trying to say? Be praying, during, pray after. Thank the Lord for the insights that he has given you. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. One of the things I have found very helpful is to, when you're thinking about praying, is I write a prayer based on what I read every morning. Right now, this morning, I finished the book of Proverbs, and I wrote out a prayer based on what I read in Proverbs that the Lord would help me in certain areas in my life. And the reason I do that is it keeps me focused as I'm reading the Scriptures. And then, when I get together with one of the Galzai disciples, who also happens to be Maggie, when we get together for discipleship, we read our prayers to each other. We're reading, we're doing the same Bible reading program together. We have, for probably 10 years now, we've been discipling, and so we read our prayers to each other based on what we have read in our daily reading. And the reason, another reason to do this is not only so you can actually go out and do the Word, but it reinforces what you're learning. It causes you to focus on what you're reading in the Bible and then reinforce what you are learning. Isaiah tells us the beauty of this principle in Isaiah 28. He said, whom will he teach knowledge? Whom will he make to understand the message? Those just wean from the milk. Those just drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. Now, speaking of prayer, I would encourage you, it is imperative that you spend time in prayer every day. Ladies, you should be talking to the Lord throughout the day. I know sometimes I say, I just say, Lord, help me. You know, Lord, help me. I'm meeting with the woman, I don't know what counsel to give her. It's like, Lord, help me. Or a situation comes up in our church. In fact, last night I got an email from a very disturbing situation in our church with a family and I was like, oh my, and then I talked to my husband when I got back to the hotel, but just Lord, help me. What to say? What to do? What do we need to do in this situation? We should be constantly praying, but I would also encourage you to have a set time where you can pray. You know, Elizabeth Elliott once said, prayer is irksome. We are reluctant to start and delighted to end, right? But it shouldn't be. We should have a time where we want to commune with the Lord and worship Him and thank Him and intercede for ourselves and for others and for our children and our grandchildren. And for me, it's the same time that I do my Bible reading, and I have found many things very helpful in my prayer time. I often use the Valley of Vision, which is a book of Puritan prayers that help me keep my thoughts heavenward because I don't want to get bogged down in praying for people's, you know, just, I guess, temporal things even though we need to do that, but I want to keep my thoughts heavenward. I also use the word of God to pray for others. Paul's prayers are very good when you're thinking about interceding for others. Psalm 119, I mean, look at Psalm 119, it's huge portion of God's word, but it is excellent to use when praying for yourself or praying for others. Why? Because you know almost every verse in Psalm 119 is about the word of God, every verse. And so just use that. If you don't know what to pray for someone, pray Psalm 119 for them. The epistle of James is very practical to use when praying. All the Psalms, they're very excellent. I try to keep my prayers heavenward and not, like I said, focused on the temporal because I don't want to become earthly in my praying. I have certain people I pray for each day. I keep a prayer journal. I have seven grandchildren, and so guess what? There's seven days in a week. So one grandchild gets prayed for every day. I have five living siblings. I had a brother that passed away, but I pray for each one of my five siblings. I only have one brother who is a believer. I pray for every lady I disciple. I pray for the two ladies who disciple me. I pray for all the people in my church, and I have everybody divided up. They're prayed for either sometime Monday through Sunday. I pray for the lost. I pray for missionaries. I pray for our president. We're commanded to pray for those in authority over us. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's a command, if you didn't know, in Psalm 122.6. I pray for personal needs. I pray for my day, what I look at my day and who I'm going to meet with, and what I think I'm going to be doing. We plan our days, but God directs our steps. In fact, I often think it's funny because I always look at my prayer journal the next morning and I was like, well, that didn't happen and that didn't. But this happened instead, and you know, may God be praised. But I pray for wisdom for people that I know I'm going to be meeting with that day or talking to on the phone. What should I say? How should I say it? And ladies, the list is endless. Now I will say this, I want to caution you, because several years ago I was challenged by a lady who was trying to help me and she wanted, she asked me if I would be willing to pray an hour a day. And I said, sure, I'll do that. And I did for a long time. And you know, I found that it became very legalistic, a chore that I had to report to her. And so I quit doing that. And I'm not saying don't pray an hour a day. My son told me when he was at Master's Seminary that in his, one of his courses he took, they had to do the same thing, pray an hour a day. But that can become very legalistic if you're not careful and very prideful. So remember some of the most beautiful prayers in the Word of God can be said in three minutes. Do you know the high priestly prayer in John 17? Three minutes. And that's a rich prayer, right? So, but we just want to be praying. I'm not trying to diminish your prayer time, but only suffice to say make it meaningful by praying for the eternal do not get bogged down in temporal. Another thing I use and I hope you do too is music. Music is a great form of worship and prayer that I have grown to love. And often I have a favorite Pandora station and I just want to worship the Lord. I don't really want to say anything. I just want to worship and through prayer in music. So music is another form of worship and prayer. A helpful hint and I learned this from Elizabeth Elliott many years ago and it's helped me so much because you know the minute you start to read your Bible and pray, it's like, oh yeah, no, what am I going to fix for dinner? Yeah, I got to go to war. Yeah, you're mine. Does anybody have that problem besides me? Distractions? Only a few. The rest of you are lying. I know. Yeah. So what I do and it's very helpful. I keep a piece of paper nearby and when I'm praying or reading and a thought comes to my mind, oh yeah, I got to tell Doug this. I'll jot it down. The Lord knows we're human, right? We're flesh. So I think of someone I need to call that day. I write it down quickly and get back to the most needful thing and that is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Ladies, I pray your soul will delight to come to the throne of grace. Find help in your time of need. Delight to talk to the Father. Do you know the Bible says that he's stooping down to listen to your prayers? His ear is listening, bending to listen. Ladies, may we be desperate to pray not to change things or change people, but change ourselves, right? And learn contentment and communicate with your dearest friend, right? Your father. Well, the next and the L on your cross is let the Holy Spirit be your teacher. Let the Holy Spirit be your teacher. Ladies, depend on him. Don't run to other sources so quickly. Wait on the Lord. Be still. Take time to meditate. Think through things. Take time to be holy. Let the Spirit guide you into all truth. I think this is a huge problem among Reformed Christians. And the reason I say that, I've often heard that Reformed people are the frozen chosen. Where did we get, when did we forget the Holy Spirit? When did we forget the third part of the Trinity? Ladies, do you know he played a major role in your salvation according to Titus 3.5? It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. It's okay, you can talk about the Holy Spirit, right? When did we forget the Holy Spirit is our counselor? He's our comforter. He's our instructor. He's the one that is convicting you this weekend of your sin. It's not me, it's him, okay? So take it up with him. Ladies, we often run to Google a friend, a spouse, a commentary, our favorite website, our favorite preacher before we run to him. Why do we do that? Ladies, we must remember the Holy Spirit is a huge part of our sanctification. He helps us in being victorious over our sin, right? 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, We all with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror of the glory of the Lord, are transformed from glory to glory. How? By the Spirit of the Lord, by the Holy Spirit. Also keep in mind the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, self-control. If you want to have a deeper time, let the Holy Spirit be your teacher. Next, another eye, increase in your knowledge. If you want to have meaningful time in the word and prayer, increase in your knowledge. Ladies, you should know more about God and His Word today than last year. Your prayer life should be richer and fuller this year than last year. Peter says in 2 Peter 1.5, Before this reason, give all diligence, add to your faith virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, self-control, self-control, perseverance, perseverance, godliness to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are in you and abound, you will be neither barren nor fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he who lacks these things is short-sighted. They're blind. They've forgotten they were cleansed from their old sins. Ladies, you are not to just get by. I hope you're not just trying to get by in your spiritual life. We are to be abounding in these things. We should be growing in our knowledge of God and His Word. We should be growing deeper in our prayer life. If not, we're unfruitful, Peter says. You've forgotten. You've forgotten, and you're unfruitful. In fact, when he writes 2 Peter 2, he says, Grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do Him be glory forever and ever, right? Amen. Ladies, part of Paul's prayer for the church at Colossae was those that were caught up in false teaching that they would increase in the knowledge of God. Why? So they could discern false teachers. That's one of the reasons. In fact, that's one of the reasons the church at Colossae was in such a mess, theologically, they were listening to false teachers. I know women who will spend hours listening to and reading religious garbage, but they refuse to spend that same amount of time with the authoritative, holy, sufficient, inspired Word of God and its author, our Father and Lord, that shouldn't be, should be increasing in your knowledge of God. Well, an attitude I pray none of us have is the end. Never think you've arrived. Huge failure in Bible study and prayer. This is a killer in Bible study. I know that. I don't need to study that. I've heard that message preached before. I'm not going to church this Sunday. I've heard that book of the Bible preached. Ladies, if you think you've arrived, that will kill your Bible study and kill your prayer time. Once you think you have nothing to learn or that you know it all, you will fail. If you ever think your spiritual life has reached its potential, you are in danger. And I didn't say that. God did. He said, pride goes before destruction, right? And destruction before a fall. If you ever think you're above all your peers in knowledge and spiritual maturity, beware. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4-7, for who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast if you had not received it? Also he says, those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise, right? We're each running our own race, okay? And so we would be wise never to compare ourselves with other or think that we have arrived. Ladies, if we glory in anyone, it must be in the Lord and not in ourselves. See the glories but glory in the Lord. Now included in this principle, never think you've arrived would also be the caution for pride, but also to admit when you're wrong. Do you ever do that? I've been studying and teaching for over 30 years now, and some of my views have changed as I have dug a little deeper, or I've thought a little more thorough, or I've memorized Scripture in its context. I've learned to discover that some of the Scripture I've used in years past was out of its context. Once I started, I memorized that book, I was like, wow, I've misused that verse. I've had to ask the Lord to forgive me. Ladies, admit when you're wrong and be willing to change your view. Remember, dear sister, it's not about being right. It's about rightly dividing the word of truth, right? So that is a killer in Bible study. The last important principle is this, the E, endeavor to use what you are learning. Endeavor to use what you are learning. Paul tells Timothy and 1 Timothy, about therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Ladies, as you're learning in Bible study, memorization, your prayer time, you should be passing that on to someone else. It's what we call discipleship. You should be passing it on to your children, to your grandchildren, or maybe another woman that you're getting with, or in a casual conversation, or maybe in a formal way, like a Sunday school class, or a ladies Bible study. Because as you pass on the truths that you're learning, they become more implanted in your mind. And by the way, as you're passing on these truths that you're learning through Bible study and prayer, make sure you're living them out, right? Because that's a killer also. Live out what you're learning. Otherwise, you just have knowledge, and knowledge without a changed life is just knowledge. And the same truth would be for your prayer life. Endeavor to use what you're learning. What is God teaching you in prayer? Are you sharing that with others? Do you let other people know that God is answering your prayer? How has he answered your prayer? That's encouraging to them and to you too. Ladies, if you're praying more and yet God is not answering any of your prayers, then something might be amiss there as well. So how can we discipline ourselves in the word and prayer? First of all, desire the word and delight in the word. Do you have an appetite for the word of God? If not, why not? What is taking away your appetite? Is your time in the word and in prayer a delight or a dread? Do you pant for God like the deer pants for water? Can't wait to meet with him? Again, if not, why not? Are you certain you have a living relationship with the living God? Secondly, idols must be put away. What do you love or whom do you love? Do you love that thing or that person more than God? What do you spend your day doing? Have you kept a time journal lately to see where your time goes, your energy, your money? Remember, my friend, God will have no other idols before him. He's a jealous God when it comes to time spent with you. The next one is spend ample time. How much time do you spend in the word and prayer on a daily basis? Are you under the myth that a chapter a day will keep the devil away or a popcorn called a God will keep you from becoming a fraud? Are you willing to miss sleep or even a meal to have more time with God? What are you willing to give up for him? What is crowding your schedule that keeps you from having meaningful time with God? Next, cultivate daily habits. What daily habits do you have in place right now? Rushing your teeth, putting your makeup on, exercising, eating, working, driving the kids to school or homeschooling them? Have you cultivated a meaningful daily discipline of time with God? Are you willing to put your apron over your head for two hours to be with the Lord? Next, it's important to understand proper hermeneutics. Do you know the proper rules of interpreting the Bible? Do you involve yourself in a serious Bible study or are you sloppy in Bible study? What are you currently studying? What are you currently memorizing? The next is pray before, during, and after your study time. And of course, pray daily. Are you in the habit of praying when you read the Bible, when you study the Bible, when you memorize the Bible? Do you realize you cannot learn anything apart from the help of the Lord and His Spirit? How has your prayer life been enriched this past year? Are you praying more or less? Are you praying more spiritual requests for others or more temporal requests? Is talking to God a delight to you or a dread? The next thing is let the Holy Spirit be your teacher. Do you rush to other sources first to get help in answering your biblical questions? Or do you pray and ask the dear Holy Spirit to help you as you study and read the Word? The next is increase in your knowledge. Do you know more about God this year than last year? How has it changed the way you live? Has your prayer life matured in the past year? Does God answer your prayers on a regular basis? Next, never think you've arrived. Do you secretly think you're more mature than others when it comes to Bible knowledge and prayer? Do you come to the Word with humility and a desire to know more? Is there room for improvement when it comes to your time of prayer? And then lastly, endeavor to use what you're learning. Who have you passed biblical truths onto this week? Are you involved in a ladies' Bible study or a discipling relationship where you can pass on the things that God is teaching you? Do you eagerly share with others how God is answering prayer in your life? Ladies, we would do well in closing to remind ourselves of a couple of verses. Paul says in 1 Timothy, to us as women, reject profane and old wives' fables, but exercise yourself to godliness, for bodily exercise profits a little. But godliness is profitable for this life and the life to come. We as women can get caught up in all kinds of womenly things, but a lot of it is not profitable. We should discipline ourselves to godliness. Paul also reminds us of his own need to discipline himself to godliness in 1 Corinthians when he talks about running in a race and he says, everybody runs, but only one receives the prize. And he talks about beating his body into subjection, at least he himself become an apostate, a castaway. Ladies, remember, we're all running the race and the prize is what? Life eternal. But we cannot afford to be lazy in the race. Paul said he himself feared. If he was lazy, if he didn't beat his body into subjection, he'd be disqualified. My deepest desire for you is that you would discipline yourself to godliness. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't allow the world to squeeze you into its mold. Ladies, my desire would be that you would be daughters of Christ who would delight. Your drive in life would be a pursuit of a meaningful and a fruitful relationship with God in prayer and in his word. It is written, seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. Will you do that? I pray you will. Let's pray. Lord God, I pray that you will forgive us for the many, many hours of our life that we waste in trivial pursuits. We think that so many things are urgent when there is one thing that is urgent and that is our relationship with you to sit at your feet, to learn, to listen, to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and his word, to cast our cares upon you, to lay our burdens down at your feet, to commune with you as friend, to friend as daughter to a father. And yet Lord, we abort this process. We vacate the word and prayer for things that have no eternal value that are going to burn up. So Father, I pray that you will galvanize the commitment of each of these ladies that their heart would be riveted towards the things of Christ, that they would desire him above all else, the all-sufficient, the altogether lovely one. And it's in his son, Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.