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The Power of a Morning Bible Verse: A Simple Habit for Daily Renewal in God’s Word

• Ahna Fulmer

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Is the all-or-nothing mindset unhinging your attempt to consistently spend time in God's Word? In this episode, Ahna shares personal experiences to explore how we can break free from this trap. We'll uncover how the pressure of turning our spiritual practices into overwhelming tasks can lead to burnout, and why it's crucial to embrace a more sustainable routine.

Discover how simplifying your devotions can transform your spiritual life into a source of daily strength and inspiration.

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Speaker 1:

And then spending time in God's word starts to become in and of itself a to-do list item and it becomes too overwhelming.

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It ends up not happening at all. And, ladies, hi, allison, I hope you guys are having an amazing week. It is rainy here. I don't know where you guys all are, but I have my tea and I'm looking out my window and seeing the rain, which I love and also makes me sleepy, all at the same time. My productivity is definitely down if I'm cold or if it's rainy, but that's all right.

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Today we are talking about how to ignite the powerful daily habit of reading God's word with a surprising tip. Tell me, if this has ever been you, you maybe have started an early morning routine. Those of you here in early morning habit. You're working on that. You made your coffee, you have your tea. Working on that. You made your coffee, you have your tea.

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The home is quiet and you are excited to sit down and renew your heart and mind with God's word and prayer. When you sit down, you get your blanket, you make yourself cozy, you're still a little sleepy because it's six or 630 in the morning and you look at your nightstand or your side table and you see your 30-page thick study guide from Beth Moore or whomever, and you open it and today's exercise is two pages long and there's a bunch of little fill-in-the-blanks and even though you're a lover of workbooks, at the moment it just feels a little too much and you're too tired. So you say, ah, close, that I'm not going to do that right now. And then you search for a little devotional that you used to have. Maybe it's this one that I happen to love. Then you open it and it has you reading chapters two through 10 and John and you think, ah, two through 10, it's a lot, even if it's 10 verses. And then you're like, oh, maybe I'll just read the Psalms.

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And then you open your Bible to Psalms and you're like I don't know where to start. Do you start at the beginning? You've been to chapter 30 or Psalm 30. You think maybe you'll start there now, maybe I'll start back at the beginning. And then you look at the clock 15 minutes have passed. You've really not spent any real time in the word. And now you're questioning what do I do next? Maybe I just scrapped this entirely because today it didn't work out.

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So you go to your to-do list or maybe you just go to get your workout done, for those of you in early morning habit, or maybe you just go to get your workout done for those of you in early morning habit. But the point is this like so many areas in our life, for many of us, myself included, when we try to establish the habit of quiet time or devotions, our tendency is still very much all or nothing and the cycle becomes well, I'm going to do the full Beth Moore workbook, I'm going to do the full study guide that accompanies the women's Bible study that I'm in, and for the first couple weeks, you do it because you're a doer and you want to meet people's expectations, and you are going to fill in all two and a half pages of every day's assignment. And then spending time in God's word starts to become in and of itself, a to-do list item, but when it becomes too overwhelming, it ends up not happening at all. So the question is how do we implement this same concept that you've heard me talk about in early morning habit in all other areas of our life fitness, nutrition, sleep, discipline? Something that I say over and over again is that we need to forego the all or nothing mentality in pursuit of sustainability, because if it's not sustainable, it's not attainable. You might enjoy the results for a brief period of time, but you are not going to be able to sustain the result that you actually want. So the question that we're answering today is how do we, even in reading God's word, avoid the all or nothing mentality, Hi friend? How do we avoid this all or nothing mentality, even as it concerns our morning devotions? So I shared a little bit about how this might look in your life, but let me tell you how it looked in your life.

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But let me tell you how it looked in my life when I was in college. It was really common for us women, or the small groups that would form in college, to do Bible studies together, and it always included a workbook, because we ladies love workbooks and we like our multicolored pens, and so we would all get excited about the workbooks. And even in college it was the same truth that is still accurate of me today as a mom X number of years later that the first couple of weeks I was in pumped up. Me and other women are doing it together, and I see my roommate she's doing she was way more disciplined than me, by the way. She was filling in all her little blanks, her two and a half pages a day in her study guide. But then in the busyness of life, even in college I ran track, I did stuff in music, I did multiple other things.

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It did not take long for the discipline to wear off and the motivation to be doing two pages of a study guide to also wear off, and what would happen is, instead of finding a middle ground, I would scrap it all together and end up completely missing daily time in God's word. As I got older. What ended up happening is, I realized I kind of don't feel like hearing what other people have to say about scripture. I just sort of want to read scripture To be clear. I just sort of want to read scripture To be clear. There is absolutely nothing wrong with devotions and books that are really beautifully written by other people who are infusing their thoughts and how they're applying God's word to their life and offering applications for yours. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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But what I started to find is that in my daily morning time I have this brief window where every day I'm creating a non-negotiable to hear from God, and so for myself it started to become okay. What would it look like if, just during this time, the only voice that I read and that I sought to hear from was God's? And again, there's no right or wrong here, but I'm helping us try to eliminate this all or nothing mentality, because in this early morning time, simple equals sustainable across the board, even when it comes to spending time in God's word. So what I started to look for were devotionals that only had compilations of scripture. This is one that I talk about in early morning habit.

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It is tiny little thing. I got it in a hardware store, not even kidding, on the little carousel. You know you live in a Christian county when you have these in the hardware store, but it's just a compilation of scripture under one theme for every day. And then, lately, I've pared it down even more because, as much as I love this, and lately I've pared it down even more because, as much as I love this, in one page there's multiple different thoughts. And so I found myself even like, as I read it, there was almost so much to think on and to try to apply to my life that I ended up. My brain already started going over here because mom, life and so many other things to think about, and so it was hard for me to even focus in on applying one of these 12 verses.

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Maybe this works, too for you, but one of the most amazing things that I've experienced that I just started doing this past year is something called a single scripture study, where I take one verse, just one verse, and in full transparency. What it's been is what we're posting on the Early Morning Habit Instagram or for any of you that sign up for the email, like one daily verse to your inbox. I literally that is the only verse that I reflect on in the morning, and it has been so transformational and powerful because of this idea that's true in business and it's true in a lot of our areas in life is is this idea that the riches are in the niches? Right, that's like a business phrase, but what's amazing is how it's actually true, even for this time in God's word, because the spiritual riches of focusing in on one piece of information, as written in God's word and then allowing that to be applied in my life very specifically, has given me clear intention every morning. I'm not doing the whole like side eye, all the devotionals that I maybe could read that morning, but I don't feel like reading that morning because it's too overwhelming and I'm already tired and I still have to work out yet. And then it makes it so much easier to follow that up with either prayer journaling if you prayer journal, or just even in your prayer, especially as you start to infuse emotionally intelligent gratitude into it.

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Because now you take that one verse and you think, god, how do I apply this one thing? Maybe it's a verse about allowing the Lord to restore your soul. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. How am I not allowing you to lead me? Where in my life am I too distracted and I'm actually running ahead of you, being like, okay, catch up, when really you're just asking me to fix my eyes on you as you walk ahead of me and lead me, and allowing that to kind of shape how you enter your day, and then you focus on that one application point for the day. It's again this concept of we're just trying to deconstruct the all or nothing mentality that even the Christian culture pushes on us as women, and it's not intentional. But the Christian culture is also being influenced by secular culture, right? Because we can't really separate the two, like we still have to live in the world and figure out how to not be of it through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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So this is a tip. It is not one that has to be used by you, but I do highly encourage you to avoid the women's Bible study, the inductive 30-page workbook that you have. I wouldn't do it during your early morning time because it very quickly starts to become like a to-do list in and of itself. To spend time in God's word and although we want to be intentional with the strategy, it needs to be something that is simple. It's not full of decisions. So this single scripture study has really made a big impact in my life.

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And also looking for devotionals that for this time. Other times awesome, like do the studies, do the women's workbooks, but just in the morning my encouragement if you want to make it sustainable, keep it really simple and if you feel so inclined, limit it to just hearing the voice of God and resensitizing your spirit, to be hearing from Him maybe instead of the voices of other people, just in that time. But I would love to hear from you guys thoughts on that, on what you've seen in your own life, or even devotionals or books that you highly recommend in that morning time. I would love to hear your thoughts on that. It's so lovely seeing people's faces here. I love it.

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Let me pray for us.

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Dear Jesus, I thank you so much for the women that are listening, that are hearing this now, that are sitting here or hearing it later.

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And, father, as we talk about being in your word, I just ask that in the morning, when we have this quiet time in our hearts, in our minds, our homes, that you would speak, whether it be through Proverbs, whether it be through Jesus Calling, whether it be through another brother or sister in Christ who has written what they have heard from you.

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But I also pray, lord, that you would speak to us specifically, that we would feel the real presence of your voice in our lives and that we would start to learn to hear from you in our own hearts and in our own spirits, and that we would feel the beautiful, beautiful power that you have given us through the Holy Spirit, to commune with you, to know you and to be known by you, and that that would be testament of our lives, especially in our homes. Lord, we love you. I pray for these women that they would go forth with calm confidence anything that is on their heart and mind the trials, the struggles, the challenges, that you would just give them a sense that it is well because you are present, you are there. That you would just give them a sense that it is well because you are present, you are there and you are going before them. So I just ask that, despite circumstances, you would give a peace that passes understanding in all of our lives. We love you, amen.

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Ahna Fulmer

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