If you’ve ever been on the go all day and it’s suddenly mid-afternoon. You sit in a comfy chair and sigh. It’s so good to sit and you realize how tired you were. We all get tired. The busy-ness of life can crowd out the invisible God’s presence and eat into time spent becoming the Psalm one man who meditates on God’s law day and night or the Proverbs 31 woman who personifies wisdom.1 Life brings its competing affections.

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Perhaps we can all take a leaf out of Israel’s history and hear God’s words from Deuteronomy 6:1–12 where God knew what family life would be like. In Deuteronomy 6, God integrates His teachings into the ordinary rhythms of life: when they walk, sit, lie down, and rise up. The presence of the law was as close as their skin and written on everyday objects like doorposts. Perhaps God knew that it would be easy for His people to forget that their inheritance was not of their own doing. The sin of ingratitude and forgetting the Giver of every perfect gift is an ever-present danger. For us, we can learn from the past (Romans 15:4). Scripture could be part of the home décor, written on bits of paper blu-tacked to walls, or a Bible verse on a keychain. In a busy day whilst looking after the family, a glance at a conveniently place Bible verse centres and grounds our thoughts so that we can be reminded to carry God’s essence into our day.

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If you are stuck in traffic on a long commute, Bible apps like Bible.is or websites like Biblegateway.com have audio options for the hearing God’s Word. Gospel music could be played throughout one’s day whilst performing menial tasks. The ordinary is converted to extraordinary moments for hearing God’s voice on the run (Romans 10:17).

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Devotional books, like Living God’s Love, outline a schedule for regular, personal Bible readings; demarcating specific daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly practices.2  Other options show how to read the Bible in a year. Holloway and Lavender note that their suggested routine for spending time with God may be very difficult for parents of small children. For those in demanding situations, Holloway and Lavender suggest prioritizing fifteen minutes a day for the breath prayer and the Jesus prayer to maintain an awareness of God’s presence.

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However, can anything surpass Jesus’ example of getting up early whilst it is still dark and finding a lonely place to commune with His Father (Mark 1:35)? We may look longingly at His example, bemoan our situation and inability to emulate our Lord. The dishes are piled up, laundry is yet to be folded, deadlines from school vie for our attention. Nouwen warns that “Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger.”3 Our attempts to consistently incorporate Scripture into everyday life can easily be sabotaged by using our own strength. Like Paul we know what it’s like to do the things we don’t want to do and don’t do the things we want to do (Romans 7:21–25).

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Through all the din and obstructions, how can we hear and see God more clearly? Powell expounds a powerful argument on the familiar refrain, “…God has made Himself known to us through the Son and by the Holy Spirit.”4 We are reminded of our true vision of God (2 Corinthians 13:14). Our goal of incorporating Scripture into everyday life may start with small faltering steps and with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit on our side and within us, we can take heart that the struggles we face, are not a path unfamiliar to Him (Hebrews 4:14–15).

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We live somewhere between working out our salvation and having God work in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12–13). It’s a calling and a tension in which we learn to discern. For a mother with a newborn, incorporating Scripture in her day will look different to a student at a Bible college. He calls each of us to lean not on our own understanding and strength but to let go and let God show us the way (Proverbs 3:5,6). As you and I seek Him, may we find the good works that He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).