Practice with purpose

I have been teaching myself to play piano for a few years now.  I purchased a dvd course to learn at home, and if only I practiced, I would probably be where I want to be.  Recently I played piano at church [for the first time ever].  I was totally terrified, made quite a few mistakes [thankfully the band covered a lot of those up], and finished much more confident than I ever have been before.

I had forgotten how important it is to have a purpose for playing.  When I learnt musical instruments at school I was in the band or orchestra [depending on which instrument I was playing at that time] and that gave me a purpose for practice.  I find this with craft - if you don't have a purpose for the craft [eg. a gift, to use yourself] you really don't ever get around to doing it.  I imagine this is why I haven't scrapbooked in so long... I forgot the reason why I was doing it.

It is the same with reading my bible.  If I am reading because I think I 'have to' [like it's a rule] I will eventually stop because there's no purpose for reading.  When I read God's word with purpose, I get more out of it, and I won't stop because I see the value in it.  The question is then, how does one read the bible with purpose? 

I read the bible to learn more about God, which is the most important thing I can do in this life.  It is not a self-help book, I don't read it to improve myself.  The more I read, the more I realise it's not about me.  It's all about Jesus.  And getting to know Him better, by reading the bible, is fun, amazing, and life-changing.  Getting into the habit of reading the bible can take practice, but more than anything else in this life He is worth the effort.