2 John

2 John 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  If you read this first thing in the morning, you've already read an entire book of the Bible today -- that's a great start to the day!! 
  It's so easy to not read the Bible.  You and I could probably sit down and list twenty things that are easier to do than sit and make a concerted effort to read the Bible.  An average person will spend 116 minutes a day on social media -- most of us would say that we never come close to that, and if teens spend 9 hours a day, that's probably pulling the average up quite a bit, but the reality is that time flies by quickly when we're mindlessly scrolling.  The social media companies employ psychologists to figure out how to get you to spend more time online.  The power of distraction is strong -- time will fly by, and we seek out distraction, whether it's online or offline, be it television or some other task. 
  Now, none of these are bad in and of themselves.  They're fine -- but the point is that we all have pockets of time in our day.  The trick is to pay enough attention to how you spend your time to notice how much time you have. 
  2 John is telling us that we show our love by following God's commandments.  Well, how do we know God's commandments?  Being informed about how God calls us to live is a way that we show our love for God, and the brilliant thing about Jesus is that his words are very challenging -- loving our enemies and intentionally pouring ourselves out for others isn't easy.  We think we know the Bible, and then we really read it, and we discover that it challenges us in new and unexpected ways.
  So monitor your time, and look for ways to put Scripture first.  You'll learn, and then you'll be transformed.