Daily Habit # 4

Refusing to check the phone until after reading a passage of Scripture is a  way of replacing the question "What do I need to do today?" with a better  one, "Who am I, and who  am I becoming?" We have no stable identity outside of Jesus. Daily immersion in the Scriptures resists the anxiety of emails, the anger of news, and the envy of social media. Instead, it forms us daily in our true identity as children of the King, dearly loved.

Reading plans. Getting a daily devotional or a book of liturgical readings such as The Book of Common Prayer is a great way to start these daily readings. If you don't have one of these, consider trying a month  with the following:

• Psalms. Whether you go through them in order or otherwise,      reading a morning psalm is always a great place to start.
• Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew has twenty-eight chapters; try reading one each morning for a month.
• Romans. The book of Romans has sixteen chapters; try reading half a chapter each morning for a month.

Daily prayer apps. I prefer reading out of a paper Bible because of the way tactile engagement brings my mind to focus. However, I often find a Bible or prayer app on my phone very useful for morning readings,  especially if I'm traveling or if I have to get out of the house early. The  Daily Prayer app is a great place to start. The ESV Bible app also has excellent reading plan functions.

Creating a new routine, The best use of this habit is simply to get your phone out of your morning routine entirely. Try starting with a week and  0  leaving your phone alone for the first hour of each morning.  Do coffee and  Scripture and then add journaling, meditating, other readings, or exercising.  

Seasons.  Many of us have jobs that require attention first thing in the morning. I have seasons like that, when a project is important enough or  around-the-clock  enough that I need to check on things early each  morning. (If you think that is every day for your life, gently reevaluate  your understanding of your importance.) If you're in a season when you  must, I've been there. I usually try to read a psalm then check email. If there is something that becomes my morning. If not, I put my phone back upstairs and continue with my desired morning routine.

Long study. Every follower of Jesus should be studying the Bible in-depth. But if you're not a vocational minister or on a weekend retreat,  you're likely not going to do it every single day, and that's okay. Let longer times of reading a book or commentary, or making an in-depth annotation of a passage, grow out of reading your Bible regularly (not get in the way of it). Remember, these habits build a trellis that amazing new things grow on. Short daily readings don't undercut longer study; they make the foundation for it.

Journaling. Journaling is a keystone habit—that is, it changes everything else in your life. If you make a habit of filling up one blank page while you read or pray or are silent before picking up your phone, your life will change.

The story of scripture is clear that we do not know who we are apart from the God who made us, and we do not know who we are becoming apart from the God who is renewing us.