It’s been 10 days since the new year so I’m assuming 92% of you have failed their New Years resolutions. And what’s so special about the New Year anyway? As a teacher, January 1 doesn’t feel like the new year. The new year is in August when school starts. There’s over a billion Chinese and their new year isn’t until the end of February and it lasts like two weeks for some reason. Jesus’ new year would have been in mid-September with Rosh Hashanah. So the truth is, it doesn’t matter when you start a good, godly habit. Today is the best day to start, and don’t let yesterday ruin today and tomorrow’s good habit. So instead of putting this out on the 1st and challenging you to make a resolution, I want to instead do it today. I’ll make a simple statement, encourage you a little bit, and help solve some of the obstacles you’ll face.
Simple Statement
Nothing will grow your faith more this year reading the Bible.
I’ve heard it put that reading your Bible is like breathing in and praying is like breathing out. I like the analogy, but I have tended to find that more people pray more often compared to the reading of Scripture. There are some great trends noticed by the Barna Group that Christian and especially Gen Z Christians are reading the Bible more in recent years. That’s awesome. Let’s keep it going. The reading of God’s Word is so valuable for you as a believer in Jesus Christ. It corrects your thinking, it fixes your actions, it teaches you about God and the life He wants you to live, and just shapes you into the person Christ wants you to be (1 Tim 3:16). None of this happens by accident, and none of it is going to happen arbitrarily. Sure, there’s dozens of other things God wants you to do, and I am not diminishing any of them, but I dare say, “the rest” cannot have any real substance to them apart from the reading of Scripture.
Encouragement
I think you should read your Bible a little bit everyday, and a lot bit every once in a while. Reading God’s Word is compared to the consuming of milk for babies, and the eating of meat for adults (Heb 5:12-14). Consuming Scripture should be, in general, as consistent and as important as eating. Are there times I miss meals? Sure. There are crazy, crazy days where that happens. No big deal. I squeeze in eating where I can as soon as I can. And a weird week with inconsistent mealtimes doesn’t ever throw off the next week. I get back to normal effortlessly. When it comes to reading your Bible, I would never guilt trip you, nor should you guilt trip yourself for missing a day, struggling to stay consistent on Saturdays when your schedule is all thrown off, or even missing a week in times of upheaval. Just keep in simple. Don’t let one missed day turn into two, one missed week turn into two, or one missed month turn into two. Nothing will draw you closer to Christ and bring clarity to your life more than reading Scripture on a consistent basis.
Obstacles
What if I am just not as consistent as I want to be?
Find a time each day (whether it’s a literal time like 7am or something like before I go to bed) and literally schedule it on your calendar if you have to. Set an alarm on your phone if you have to. I’ve had devotional times like right when I got in the office, or right when I got the kids off to school, or back in high school it was when I got home from soccer practice. Just find a consistent time and build a habit. Jesus woke up early before his day started to spend time with His heavenly Father (Mark 1:35). There is so much wisdom with that. (I look forward to not having a toddler who can wake up anywhere between 4am to 8am.)
What if I’m confused about what I’m reading?
I’m a big believer in understanding what you are reading. So here’s my advice depending on where you are at in your Christian life. If you are new to Christianity, my encouragement would be to get a devotional book or something similar to just help you get started. However, pretty soon, I want you to dive in and start reading little bits of Scripture even just a chapter at a time is fine. (Devotional books tend to just be a couple verses at a time, so don’t stay stuck to that for too long. Babies start eating mushed up food pretty soon.) I tend to recommend the New Testament for young Believers just to help frame Christ a bit easier in the beginning. When you have questions, ask people, or look up questions you have in commentaries or GotQuestions.org. You start picking it all up pretty quick. You’ll understand 90-95% of what you read within a year. Once you’ve knocked out a good chunk of the New Testament and you want to read the whole Bible, here’s my recommendation. There’s no “bad way” to read the Bible, but I’ll tell you what I like to do. Set yourself up a Bible reading plan on the Bible app. I highly recommend one of the chronological Bibles. You may not know this, but the Old Testament especially is not in order. It’s organized by literature type. The first few history books are in order, but then it starts going all over the place. I think reading the Psalms in-between the life events of David really helps them pop. Reading through the minor prophets is hard, but they make way more sense when you are reading what is happening historically at the same time. Fun tip: as long as you are paying attention, listening to the Bible gets you the same gold star sticker as reading it. All these Bible apps will read the Bible to you.
What if I start getting behind in my reading plan?
I know when I was younger, I read Genesis through Exodus so many times. I just kept starting and stopping. I finally read through the whole Bible in a year when I was a freshman in college (it was an assignment for school.) In the years since, I would almost stress because you get behind a few days and I really like completing things on time. Please hear me. There is no spiritual difference between reading the Bible in 12-months year versus 14.25-months. I’ve even purposefully taken years and said, I’m going to read the Bible slower in order to try to get more out of it. Maybe it takes me 2 ½ years. Cool, no problem. Right now, I’m reading through the Bible in The Message. (Don’t @ me in the comments, I know some of you all HATE The Message Bible.) But when I read something that sounds a little foreign to me, it gets me to research how the author, Eugene Peterson, came to that translation decision. It’s fun for me. So some days I read what I’m supposed to that day based on the 365-day solar calendar, but some days I read less because I took a side quest. And some days, I miss completely because of something or other. But those don’t happen too often, and I don’t get in the habit of missing. I get right back to my morning Bible snack the next day.
I’ve always like the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So set a good Bible reading plan and start today. What are you going to read? When are you going to read it? What supports do you know you’ll need to stay consistent? And be quick to reach out for help and accountability if you need it.
Joe Allotta 