is the Bible a wishing well?

How many of you spend regular, intentional time with God by reading the Bible?

Pause for a second.

Really: hit "pause" in your brain, and stop to think:

What immediately comes to my mind when I'm asked that question?

• I should read the Bible more often than I do.
• I wonder if God is upset with me for not spending more time with him in his Word.
• I try to read the Bible regularly... but it usually ends up lasting only for a few days.
• I wish I could spend as much time in the Word as I used to.

Maybe none of these thoughts immediately pop into your head when you're asked that question.  Maybe you're reading the Bible regularly.  If so:

I think that you're probably in the minority.

In fact, I even have some data to back up that hypothesis.

USA Today recently did a story on a study done by Thom and Jess Rainer that the Christian firm LifeWay Research picked up on.  In studying the Millennial generation, the study found that only 8% of Millennials read the Bible or other sacred text daily.

Yep, you read that right: the Bible shares - not commands, but shares - the daily time of only 8% of people born in the U.S. from the mid 1970s onward.

Now, this isn't going to be one of those posts that simply laments this state of affairs, or that calls for some sort of overzealous recommitment to the Bible, or that shames you into a came-and-went spurt of Bible reading.

I simply want to make an observation.

One of the reasons why so few of us read the Bible daily - even as followers of Jesus - is that we sometimes approach it like it's a wishing well.  We deposit a little bit of the last part of our time into it every once in awhile, like dropping the loose change after a Starbucks purchase into the fountain at the mall... hoping that maybe, just maybe, we might get what we are wishing for.

And then, when we don't, well, no big deal... after all, it was only a few pennies.

So here's my question for you on this Seek Me to Live Wednesday:

What if I gave God the best part of my day, every day, as I read his Word?

Maybe we'd start wishing for different things.

Or, maybe we'd stop wishing for things, and instead become what we wished for.