One of the toughest things for me, as a Christian, has always been to consistently read my Bible. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t want to, it was that I didn’t know where to begin.
I don’t know if you feel the same, but for me reading my Bible every day is ESSENTIAL to my personal and spiritual growth. It prepares me to stand up to a world that wants me to conform to its destructive patterns. Most importantly, it helps me become more familiar with God’s voice (John 10:27). Reading God’s word and knowing His voice is a vital part of learning how to live the way God wants us to live.
My friend Chris Nicely recently wrote a great blog on HOW to approach reading God’s word. It’s worth a read. In it, he agrees that the first step to reading God’s word is to know WHY you should.
When I asked my Facebook friends why they read their Bible daily, Rosalina from Long Beach quoted 2Timothy 3:16-17,
“All Scripture is God‑breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
My friend Fred Blattner said that the thing that what motivates him is his “need for spiritual nourishment”. My beautiful fiancée, Rina, also identified her daily reading as a form of “nourishment”, and went on to say, “When I don’t read I feel distant and weird…like I’m unprepared and out of WHACK!”
Knowing WHY we should read God’s word is important, but once we know WHY we read, the next question is, “WHERE do we start?”
On my journey to make reading my Bible a habit, I discovered that just opening the Bible and reading the first page I land on doesn’t really work. Reading aimlessly with no specific goal caused me to be, for lack of a better word, wishy-washy. I needed direction. I needed a PLAN. After doing a little searching, it turns out that there are MILLIONS (yep, I counted) of Bible reading plans out there, ready to help people like me find the direction they need.
I recently came across YouVersion.com‘s reading plan titled “Psalms and Proverbs“. This plan takes you through the book of Psalms twice, and the book of Proverbs twelve times in the course of one year. This plan works for me because I like to start and end my day with a Psalm and a chapter from Proverbs. This way I’m starting my day with God’s wisdom and encouragement, and I’m ending it the same way. With YouVersion’s Bible app for iPhone, I ALWAYS have my Bible and reading plan with me.
Fred noted that what helps him get started is a “Bible in a Year” reading plan. Rina likes to read the from the Old and New Testament daily. Her reason is that she likes to see the symbolic/theoretical along with the practical. Rina is also a big fan of Ruth, and whenever she needs encouragement she will turn to Psalms. I, like my gorgeous wife, also supplement my plans by choosing a specific book from the Old and New Testament. Currently I’m starting the book of Isaiah and the book of John, while Rina is reading through Lamentations and Hebrews.
I encourage you to get your daily dose of spiritual nourishment from God’s word. Stay CONSISTENT by finding a reading plan that works for you. Once you find it, watch how God blesses you on your spiritual journey. If you commit to seeking God in His word, I guarantee you will be blessed beyond your capacity to comprehend!
BONUS CHALLENGE: I have crafted a special reading plan titled C40X. If you’re up to the challenge, this reading plan will take you through the entire New Testament in 40 days! Check it out “HERE“!
How do you keep yourself in the habit of reading your Bible? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Well…Thanks to your C40X challenge I am finally on a plan that I have stuck with for more than 2 weeks. I think a HUGE key to a plan for those who find sticking to a plan to be a problem is finding a community such as this where you can communicate about your plan. Having a group or at least a parnet you can report to with your progress help keep you rolling in the begining to form good habits until you find something that works for you.
My problem is i am simply not a reader. I do enjoy reading my bible but I read at a much slower pace and I feel my progress is being slowed by the fact I am spending more time on the reading then the understanding, so I find that listening to the bible was my prefered method of getting my daily study done. This doesn’t mean you get out of your reading because as I recently learned you are dependant on someone elses infections of the Word so you still need to either read along or go back and reread passages that you may question or at some point alternatate you bible in a year with audio and visual methods.
I am really looking forward to what you have to bring us after the C40X. If it’s not the 365Extreme, at the least an open discussion of the Live365 would be nice so we can all have a topic page to discuss as we go along
Good Stuff….Just going back and seeing what I have missed in the past
LOL…I just realized I said someone elses “infections” of the Word..lol. I meant inflection as in the way the read it or vocalize it. I have noticed that the reader on my YouVersion app has interpretted a few passages differently than I would have and in fact the way my study bible and subsiquent questioning of a pastor confirmed.
This is a struggle indeed. What has worked for us recently is we started a devotional earlier this year (link). So everyday we sit together as a family and read.
That’s awesome Edgar! Tell me about your family? Wife, kid(s)?
I have started using the “Bible in a Year App” http://youtu.be/YvJFZWWrzCM. The added bonus of this App are the video devotionals by Pastor Dudley Rutherford.
That is a great app! And I love that it’s a part of my “Call On Jesus” app. Thanks for commenting Tim!
That is a great app! And I love that it’s a part of my “Call On Jesus” app. Thanks for commenting Tim!
I’m attempting the chronological Bible this tr. Hoping it’s easier to read in historical order
YouVersion and it’s reading plans has been such a help to me. I have slowly improved my daily reading but have found that if you bite of too much it tends to hinder your daily commitment. I read 2 40 days of lent plans at the same time. Together they equalled about 2 chapters a day and I made it through only having to catch up a day once or twice. After Easter I began a Bible in a year plan that has me reading chapters from 4 different books each day and right now I am 2 days behind because I missed a day and because of a late day today did not get to it so now I am 2 days and 8 chapters behind. I think I need to re-evaluate the plan.