It's that time of year again when I decide what I will use as a plan for daily Bible reading for the coming year. Back in 2003, we had just moved to Indiana and my husband was on a year-long deployment overseas. As a lonely young mom effectively functioning as a single mom in a new state that year, when our pastor challenged us if we had never read the Bible through in a year, maybe this was the year to do it, I decided that was exactly what I needed. And for the past more than 20 years since, I've made it a practice to do just that, some plans were heavier on the amount of daily reading than others, but always including at least one time through the Bible in a year. This is a practice I strongly encourage. Too often we read the Bible out of context and those favorite verses we love just may not mean what you think they mean if you take the time to read what they are actually saying. Any Bible reading plan needs to take context seriously, not just a verse here and there. Maybe you won't read the whole Bible all the way through every year, but everyone ought to take the opportunity to read it all the way through at least once, so you can grasp the whole arc of the scripture in context. It really is edifying.
Another practice I gleaned from encouragement from another pastor is to read the Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so it works out nicely to read through the book each month, taking a chapter a day. That practice I'll continue this year, as I've found it very edifying and it is neat how the wisdom in Proverbs begins to filter into how you think through life's situations when you're spending every day reading through it.
This year, however, I think I am going to change things up a bit. I've noticed the past couple of years that the amount of chapters I had set to read each day were sometimes challenging, and it was becoming more that some days felt more like kind of a 'check the box burden' feeling, and I'd find my mind drifting and realize I hadn't really taken in what I'd read rather than really digging in and every day pondering what I was reading and digesting it well. Some days were better than others, but overall, I think I've suffered a bit in deeper devotions and study. Also, I found that reading ahead for the various group Bible study opportunities I have during the week was suffering. I need to change things up this year and I'm hoping for a deeper devotional time for it.
So, all that said, here is what I plan for my own personal daily reading this year.
Every day (Sunday-Saturday): Read through the Psalms and Proverbs, repeating as often as the year allows.
Monday: Read and think over the passage we will be studying in our Wednesday morning women's study.
Tuesday: Read and think over the passage we will be studying in our Wednesday evening study.
Wednesday: Read the Wednesday am passage again and prepare for the morning.
Thursday: Read and think over the passage for our Sunday school lesson.
Friday: Read and think over the Sunday school passage again and the passage for the Sunday morning sermon if we know it.
Every day: Work on scripture memory. (I've been stuck on Colossians 1 for way too long now)
I'm looking forward to this new plan for the coming year. It will be different for me, and I have a feeling it will feel really weird not to be starting over in Genesis on January 1, but I'm looking forward to being better prepared for the group discussions and to learning more for myself as well.
May I encourage you, too, whatever plan you might choose, to spend some good time in Bible reading and prayer each day? It is a gift of God's grace that we have these means to draw near to Him.
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