Are you concerned about the coming presidential election? Afraid your candidate won’t win? Maybe you’re concerned your candidate will win, but not convinced he’ll keep his campaign promises. Or maybe you’re fretful he’ll keep a few selected promises, but just a few. Maybe you don’t care if your candidate performs well or not—you just don’t want the alternative in office. Maybe you don’t like any presidential choice; there is not one candidate who is worthy of your vote.

Here’s another way to look at it: What if the candidate who gets your vote turns out to be the next Antichrist? Bet you didn’t think of that. Or maybe he becomes the Antichrist’s sidekick, the terrifyingly cruel False Prophet? Or maybe your candidate is just an ordinary run-of-the-mill, average, garden-variety false prophet? Or maybe he’s just a prissy prophet with an uncanny ability to predict his day-to-day activities, as long as his day planner is handy. But what if your so-called “true prophet” couldn’t prophecy his way around the block, let alone through a maze of world conflicts? Then what?

Since the beginning of the New Year, I have heard a number of believers express their desire to read the Bible more consistently in 2012. Bible reading seems to be a dominant theme these days. I have heard this theme repeated on the radio, television, internet, and in personal conversations. This is more than a popular trend. God is challenging His children to read His Word more consistently. Why is that?

Well, reading the Bible consistently will:

increase our faith
promote spiritual growth
identify God’s promises
provide strength to overcome temptation
offer guidance for wise decisions
reveal knowledge of God’s nature

The list of Bible reading benefits is quite long—too many to count. However, one benefit stands above the rest. The Apostle Paul put it like this: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” (2 Timothy 3:16).

At the conclusion of our vacation in late July, I discovered that the Kansas dryness matched my spiritual dryness. While on vacation, I was taken out of my spiritual habit of prayer and Bible reading. It’s difficult to maintain a predictable schedule with grandchildren around.

On Thursday morning, my first day back to a regular routine, I sat in my familiar chair, cup of coffee in one hand, my Bible in the other. Expecting to pick up where I left off two weeks prior, I began to read Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork…” Although the warmth of God’s presence began to return as I finished the Psalm, I still wasn’t responding to Him as I anticipated. I was in a spiritual dry spell.

That afternoon I went to a local greenhouse to purchase a couple of hanging plant arrangements for our yard. Vicki is always looking for a good deal and she told me that Valley Farms Greenhouse had hanging plant baskets at half price. I drove to the greenhouse and quickly selected two arrangements that could endure full sun.

Linda Spano, the owner of Valley Farms, helped with my selections and was instructing me how to care for the plants. She cautioned me about giving the arrangements too much water initially. She said, “Just water around the edges of the pot; count to three. Then go do something else for about ten minutes. While you are doing something else, the soil in the pot will begin to absorb the water from around the edges. Once the soil is dampened from the initial watering, the plant will be primed to hold more water. Now you can give the center of the plant a good watering.”

Hebrews 11:1-2, 6

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that faith is substance. I see two words in that description: “sub” and “stance.” In other words, faith is just below the surface; it’s something to stand on. Faith is like a sub floor we can’t see, yet we know it’s there. We can’t see faith or measure it or weigh it, but we feel its stability. Faith is the foundational bedrock that stabilizes our relationship with God. Faith is real; it is substantive.