You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek
you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land
where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 (NIV)
I’m
not a Bible scholar. I haven’t
been to seminary. I’m not the
greatest writer. BUT I do love the
Lord, I love His Word, and I think more than anything I love hearing His
voice. I came to know Jesus when I
was pretty young, so I’ve been a believer for a long time, and I’ve read the
Bible all the way through a few times, but I still have a thirst for more. It is the living breathing word of God,
my Father, my creator, my savior.
I need it like I need air, or as I need my “daily bread”. (As Job said, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.”) It is how I get closer to understanding the mystery of the
character of God and His love for me.
It is one way I come closer to Him and get to experience the wonder of
hearing Him speak to me, teach me, rebuke me, guide me.
I
just recently finished reading through the Bible, but I’m not sure how long it
took me…quite a while…if I’m being honest. I wanted to start the year off by starting through the Bible
again, but this time, I wanted to have a plan. I didn’t want to just read a couple chapters here and
there. There are many “Read
through the Bible in a Year” plans out there, and I looked through several
without finding one I really liked.
So I made my own. It goes
straight through the Bible from beginning to end except for Psalms, which is
spread out. It is a 6 days a week
plan (with even a few 5 day weeks in there) to allow time for reflection,
rereading, catching up if you missed a day, or reading somewhere else in the
Bible that maybe the church or life group is studying. I would say each daily reading probably
takes an average of about 20 minutes of reading time. At first I just did this for myself, but I thought there
might be others out there who might like to follow this plan with me and could
maybe even help hold me accountable to stick with it.
I’m
starting this blog to reflect on what I’m reading as I go through this
plan. I’d love it if other people
would go along with me, maybe even open up conversations on the blog with their
own reflections. And if not…if it
is just me…well…this will motivate me to stay on track seeking God’s word and
His Will for my life, and that is no small thing.
You
can find the file for the whole year’s chart if you would be interested in
downloading or printing it. Or if
you want to follow along with the blog, I will post each day’s reading along
with my reflection. I will also
mention that I have not put dates on the plan, but rather, week 1-day 1 format,
so anyone could choose what days they read and when in the year they start.
If
there is anyone out there reading this who has never read through the Bible, or
if you have and want to again, whether you are a Christian and believe it is
the Word of God, or if you are completely skeptical of the whole thing…I
encourage you to go for it, whether with me or not, and see if it doesn’t
change your life!
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture
has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:38
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