TODAY’S SIGNATURE VERSE ••• Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105 ESV)
PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• In the almost three years I’ve been daily-writing My Grace-Full Life, I’ve occasionally been advised to NOT include the full Bible verse in my posts… but instead, just the Scripture reference so that people can look them up for themselves. There’s a lot of wisdom in the advice. 1) It would shorten my posts a lot and 2) It would give people a reason to go to the Bible themselves.
But there’s a reason I don’t heed the advice though I value it and understand it… I want to make it as easy as possible for the reader. I know how often I bookmark things with the intent to go back and read more later… or look that up later… and I never get around to it. So I don’t want the reader to miss out on what God’s Word says in the event that they don’t have time to look up a verse for themselves.
Incidentally, it’s also the same reason I break every blogging rule out there and just post the whole content of the post on Facebook and Instagram instead of directing the reader to my website… I don’t want to create more work or more clicks though it would definitely benefit my web numbers if I would. But that’s not what this is about. I’m willing to sacrifice the web traffic for the sake of convenience for the reader.
In our world, convenience is always a priority.
Just as I want My Grace-Full Life to be convenient, we have the convenience of God’s Word at our fingertips. It’s easier now than ever! Having God’s Word is a gift. It’s God’s love letter to humanity and really, the ultimate manual on how to live.
I touched on this yesterday when I wrote about a man in my Sunday School class who has committed so many verses to memory. But we live in a culture where we can literally have God’s Word at our fingertips. I had dinner with some friends last night and we were comparing Bible apps on our phones. I didn’t realize it but I have eight Bible apps on mine! I only use two with regularity but I didn’t realize I’d downloaded so many!
So my inner nerd wondered… how many people take advantage of the convenience of God’s Word on their phones? According to a brief Google search, there are 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world. So that’s about 1/3rd of the world’s population.
Let’s look at the numbers: YouVersion is the most popular Bible app and has been installed on over 405 million devices. I couldn’t find the data for other Bible apps (including my personal favorite, Bible Gateway) but just going on YouVersions number… that’s roughly 12% of overall smartphone users. I’m no mathematician or statistician, but for argument’s sake, let’s just say collectively, the other Bible apps have a similar download number. We’re still only at a quarter of total overall smartphone devices.
Friends, if convenience is the name of the game and we want constant access to the Bible, it couldn’t be easier! Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” And there, right in our hands, we can access the greatest resource available available to light our daily paths! Are you taking advantage of it?
Today, as you pray, thank God for the technology that allows us the easiest and most convenient way to access His Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower those who create these tools and help their ministries reach more people!
SHARING ••• Please feel free to comment or share this blog with others. Also, download a free Bible-In-A-Year Reading Plan when you subscribe to www.MyGraceFullLife.com! ***Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture references are from the ESV translation.
