“Every time we try—rightly—to form a spiritual habit we find ourselves walking a tightrope! Simply because the habit can come to be seen as valuable for itself, and the benefit it was designed to bring gets forgotten….Isn’t there a disciplined habit to be cultivated if we are to get to know our Bibles like Jesus knew his? Yes, indeed. But isn’t it easy for the habit to become an end in itself, a pride… Or again, we rightly love the Lord’s Table, and Sunday is unthinkable without the Breaking of Bread. But be careful here too! The precious habit can take over and the bread and wine pass from hand to hand without any feasting in mind and heart on the Christ of Calvary. Over everything the Bible would inscribe the words: “These things I write to you so that you may not sin’ (1John 2:1).”

—Alec Motyer, Isaiah By The Day