January 1st dawns cold and bright, heavy with the weight of restriction for many of us. We use the birth of a new year as an opportunity to scale back our indulgences, tighten up our budgets, and pledge our allegiance to structure and discipline after a season of feasting and unrestrained consumerism.
Many Christians will assure themselves that THIS is the year they’ll finally commit to reading the Bible regularly. They’ll start in Genesis, but by the beginning of March find themselves confused by Leviticus and uninspired by all the lists in Numbers. By April, all pretense of Bible reading has been abandoned along with the tiresome march of salads and steamed vegetables, and replaced with an odd mixture of relief and guilt and cheese fries.
Not that I’m writing from experience or anything…. (sigh)
In years past I’ve viewed my annual January commitment to read the Bible with gritted teeth and what turned out to be the same short term resolve that I took to dieting or exercising.
But then one year I successfully stuck to a diet plan and lost forty pounds, which proved to me that I could actually be disciplined, contrary to popular belief. A horrifying number on the scale and the winded feeling in my chest after climbing one flight of stairs revealed my need for new habits. The pressing need was the catalyst for establishing the much-needed habit changes.
That same year I went through some difficulties that sent me to the Word out of sheer desperation and I realized how much I needed the daily ritual of being in the Word with the Lord, and it had nothing to do with checking off a little box each day so I could feel good about myself. But you know what helped me go to the Word with regularity? Going to the Word with regularity. I don’t know why I was surprised, but the act of setting up the habit of reading the Word served me for times of adversity when I absolutely had nowhere else to go. My default go-to-the-Scriptures response to suffering came from ingraining in myself the morning ritual of opening the Scriptures. Daily patterns prepared me for suffering because it trained me to know where to go for help.
Checking off a list had nothing to do with it. As a follower of Jesus, my heart longed to know Him better. Allowing the daily reading requirement to be a servant to my desire to be in the Word regularly was everything. So, rather than viewing a plan to read the Bible in 2017 as a necessary-but somewhat bothersome-habit, take January 1st as an opportunity to let a Bible reading plan be the catalyst to get to your deeper desire to know the Lord better and to draw near to Him. It’s impossible to know God without reading the Word. He gave us all we need to know in His Word and through the person of Christ. How can we love what we do not know? We can’t.
I don’t know if you’re committing to a healthier year physically (I am really going to miss potatoes), but I hope that above all you’re committing to know Christ better. If that’s the case, I’ve got some resources to help you in your resolution to read your Bible with some regularity. I promise, no time in the Word is wasted. Even if it feels dry and dull on some days, the Spirit is still doing His work and imprinting the Word on your heart.
Resources: Bible Reading Plans
If you’re new to daily Bible-reading (or if you always find yourself struggling to make a plan), here are some resources that may help you get started. I recommend a Bible-in-a-year plan if you’re not in the habit of reading the Bible regularly as the daily requirements will help you establish the habit (which will serve you in the future).
My husband is a big fan of the 5 day reading plan. You can find a print out, app version, and even a Spanish version. With this plan, you can skip a few days without getting too far behind. If you feel that reading the Bible in a year is a lofty goal or that you’re setting yourself up for failure, this plan may be exactly what you need.
Tim Challies has a good list of resources including Ligonier’s plans, a plan to read through just the four gospels, and others. This ESV resource has several reading plans, including a chronological one.
Most study Bibles have a 1 or 3 year reading plan in the back, so flip your own Bible open to see if there’s a reading plan included. No downloads or apps required!
If you would rather do an in-depth book study, check out my post on what I call “One Book Study.” There’s even a VLOG demonstration. This post was part of a series I wrote over the summer of 2016 on knowing God through His Word. You can find all the posts here. This is my current approach as I’m camping out in the gospel of John for the next few months.
No Excuses.
There are so many good resources available for getting into a pattern of studying the Word. With technology, we have the Bible at our fingertips at all times. We really have no excuse. God has given freely of Himself to us. Let’s dive deep into His Word and know Him better this year! Desiring God Ministries gives some wise advice for guarding our time with the Lord in 2017. “What might God be pleased to do in us and through us if 2017 was the year of our deepest fellowship with him through the word and prayer? Certainly far more than we can think or imagine today.”
Happy New Year, friends.
Glenna Marshall is married to her pastor, William, and lives in rural Southeast Missouri where she tries and fails to keep up with her two energetic sons. She is the author of The Promise is His Presence (P&R) and Everyday Faithfulness (Crossway), and Memorizing Scripture (Moody). Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Sue Tell says
My desire to be in the Word is fueled by my underlying desire to grow my friendship with Jesus and to experience his grace, not to check off a chart, or even succeed in reading the entire Bible in one year.
Glenna Marshall says
That’s exactly how I’ve feel, Sue!
I’ve found in over a decade of church ministry, though, that people want to grow in their relationship with Christ, but don’t have any kind of framework in place for reading the Bible in order to fuel that kind of growth. I think developing the habit serves the purpose of the relationship. I agree with you–it has nothing to do with checking off boxes, but has everything to do with making time with the Lord a regular priority.
Thanks for stopping by!