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It is a new year!

Don’t worry this is not a post on making resolutions. Rather, this article is a guilt free reminder about the importance of spending time daily in the word of God. In fact, this New Year may be a great time to embark on a journey through the entire narrative of scripture. There are many Bible readings plans available to help you plough through the scripture in a year. It actually only requires around 70 hours to read through the entire Bible, which is less time than the average North American spends watching T.V., during the course of a single month.

 

So I want to invite you to commit, along with me, to making the word of God a top priority in your life this year. What follows are a few suggestions to help promote beneficial Bible reading:

 

 Approach the scripture in a prayerful, spirit of humility

  1. This is a willingness of spirit to be corrected by God’s word, leading to repentance and life transformation.

  2. Portions of scripture we originally find offensive may just contain truth that is unfamiliar to us. This first point is a commitment to receive and believe the entire counsel of scripture, including the hard instruction because it is these hard-to-stomach truths in God’s word that produce soft hearts in us.

 Pick a consistent time and space to read scripture

  1. The time and space may change based on seasons of life.

  2. If extended periods of Bible reading haven’t been a habit for you, it is probably unwise to set a goal to read the Bible for an hour every day. Start with a more realistic amount of time. Those who always try to be spiritual heroes find themselves, more often than is healthy, feeling like spiritual zeroes.

  3. Give the time you can give and trust God to meet you in these set-aside moments of prayer, reading, worship and reflection.

 You may find it helpful to choose a particular book of the Bible to immerse yourself in for a season.  Choose a smaller passage of scripture and read it several times slowly, reflecting on the words and phrases, mulling them over in your mind.

  1. If you journal you may find the SOAP method helpful which stands for scripture, observation, application and prayer.

  2. Mentally revisit what you’ve read at different points in the day, allowing the truth of scripture to orientate yourself on the love of God and spur you on to spontaneous prayer and worship.

Don’t be shy about marking up your Bible. Charles Spurgeon once remarked that, “a well-marked Bible is the sign of a well-fed soul.”

  1. Marking our Bible forces us to slow down and be more reflective in our reading. This involves circling key words, underlining significant phrases, making note of repetition in the text etc.  Writing out scripture also is helpful in this regard.

 

 Read the Bible in community. Share what you’ve been shown.

  1. We retain far more of what we share than what we hear or read.

  2. Reading scripture in community helps round out our understanding of the Bible. This is especially crucial if we are new to the Bible. Scripture is meant to interpret scripture, so it is helpful to be surrounded by people that know more scripture than us.

 

 

Below is an example of how SOAP works, combined with a divine reading of scripture (in other words, a prayerful, reflective reading of scripture that involves reading through the text slowly twice and mulling over any key words or phrases that the Holy Spirit highlights for you).

 

Scripture:  Psalm 34:8

 

Observation(s):

 

  • In this reading verse 8 stuck out to me. ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

  • Tasting and seeing are sensory experiences. God’s goodness is not to be an abstract concept that we simply believe. God’s goodness is meant to be experienced. Our senses are involved in adoring the goodness of God.

  • God is a refuge. We seek refuge in times of trial, struggle or danger. There is blessing for those who run to God, there is happiness for those who hunker down into God’s favor and love.

 

 

 

Application(s):

  • How am I tasting and seeing the goodness of the Lord? Currently, my two young children are recovering from serious infections. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness to God that He has placed in His creation, and in the minds of people, the power to harness the healing potential latent in His world, to cultivate medicines like antibiotics.

  • What are the difficulties and stresses that I am currently faced with? Illness in the home. A lack of energy. Where am I running to for refuge? At times I am tempted to run to entertainment for refuge. I need to continue to cultivate the habit of turning to God first in trials and difficulties. There is blessing there.

 

Prayer:

 

 

God, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for the tangible sense of your presence and love when I worship. Thank you that my children are recovering from their sickness. Thank you that you are a healer and that you have created our bodies with remarkable healing capabilities. Thank you for your word. You are good enough to communicate your heart and your love to us! Help me run to you as my refuge: may you be the one who receives my first cry for help. God, I need your strength right now.  You are my refuge.

 

Thank you for your word. Thank you for an anchor in the midst of the storms of life. Thank you for the many blessings.

 

Amen.

 

 

For Bible reading plans see:  The E100 essential Bible reading plan available at the church.

 

Or download the You Version Bible app for your phone or computer.  On this Bible app there are plenty of plans to choose from.