Monday, August 7, 2017

Reading Through The Bible.

 

I know I've talked about this (here, here, and here), but I've been reading through the Bible in a year. I love it and am sort of a walking advertisement to all of my friends about it. I explain more about why I think its so great and important and bears lots of fruit in this post. But today I just wanted to check in!

  I'm 219 days into my reading plan this year. I chose the free chronological plan on the Bible iPhone app (I like it because it builds in a grace day each week!). This is my first time reading chronologically, and I do love it and how I get a better narrative of the story woven through the entire Bible. Here are my biggest takeaways so far this year:

Being able to use my phone is a good thing. Sometimes, I can become hung up on the importance of holding my physical Bible. It always just seems better to me and it somehow seems less genuine to read the Bible on my phone and I know that's silly. I've really tried to let go of that this time around and to embrace reading on my phone if I need to. For example, I didn't take my big Bible on vacation with us and instead used the Bible app on my phone!

Doing it with a friends is awesome. My friend Meg is also doing the same plan and, while we aren't formally doing it together, it has been nice to have accountability. Sometimes we'll chat about where we are of if we're a bit behind or what a big takeaway from a recent reading is. I can't really put into words how encouraging it is to just know you're in it together!

Small seeds planted in faith can increase abundantly. I've shared this quote a dozen times, but I never feel its more applicable than with consistently reading through the Bible. Lots of days feel monotonous or just odd (hi, Leviticus!), but in the whole, it adds up to so much! It's easy to see how roots and wisdom have grown for me in the last 7 months!

Reading chronologically has been great for identifying and understanding the whole story that the Bible tells- instead of only single books of Bible I'm able to connect the dots and really start to understand how it is all one seamless story. Even more, I'm noticing how a few years of reading through the Bible means that Scripture really is starting to take deeper and deeper roots in my heart and mind.

This one might come as a surprise. While I love making a commitment to reading through the Bible, I have decided not to do it again next year. I know, I'm the biggest advocate for doing this (and doing it more than once!). But my biggest takeaway the past 8 months is that I want to be able to sit more in one passage or book of Scripture. So in January I'll be using this journal and the concepts laid out in this book. I want to pick a few portions of Scripture and study deeper and I'm super excited to start in a few months. Until then, I'll keep trucking through the Bible chronologically.

All in all, I know that I'll never have it all figured out or know all there is to know when it comes to my faith. If anything, the more I learn and study, the more I realize I don't know! But the daily habit of sitting down and being with Jesus and studying the Bible is quite literally life changing. The best place to start is to just start!

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