Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Patrick Miller. We're about to enter the new year and that's why we're

going through a short little series on habits habits that we think will actually

improve your life because they draw you closer to the one who has life, Jesus.

And perhaps one of the most important habits that we could ever talk about is what this entire

podcast is all about. Reading the Bible, understanding God's word.

Now the truth is, I think a lot of people listening to this,

and plenty of people who aren't listening to this,

want to spend more time in their Bibles.

In 2023, I think most Christians would would say I want this to be the year

where I really commit my life to reading God's word. But when I ask people what's stopping

you from getting time with God, the answer is usually the same. I'm just busy. I feel like I don't have the time. But I wonder if that's really true. I mean, finding time is more complex than solving a scheduling issue. Let me give you an example. What if I told you

that I knew the secret to reading 200 books a year? I mean lots of people would

like to read 200 books a year. The average non-fiction book is about 50,000 words

So 200 books is about 10 million words which would take the average American about 515 hours to read.

Okay, you're like, so what?

I don't have an extra 515 hours to spare.

So how could I ever read 200 books?

We'll stop and think about this.

The average American also spends 1,642 hours a year watching TV and 608 hours a year on social media.

My friends and I looked at our phones and we realized that we

spend an average of 819 hours a year just looking at our phones. So here's the

...