Are You Already Behind In Your Reading?

Jan 16, 2011 by desiringvirtue

*This post is not for those of you who never miss a day of Bible reading… it is for people like me who tend to get behind.

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” ~Psalm 119:15

Constant intake of the Word is vital to my life. Let me share with you the way my perfect day begins: it begins with a perfect morning. What does that morning look like? Me, my Bible, and some hazelnut coffee.

Reading the Word, Praying to my Father, Meditating on the Lord. These things set the direction of my day. They draw me into the presence of the Lord and send me out with the power of the Holy Spirit to face what is to come.

Consistency?

It can be hard to be consistent in your devotional life, but making daily time with the Lord a priority is so pivotal that it should never be given up on. Bible reading plans can be very helpful when trying to keep yourself on track, but sometimes they can also be discouraging. How can that be? Well, think about it. What happens when you get a couple days behind? Suddenly you feel overwhelmed, you have to catch up, you think “When will I ever have time to read 15 chapters???”. Either you simply have to skip over those passages or you soon give up on your plan altogether and revert back to those books of the Bible you find yourself in most often.

What is the Point?

The purpose of Bible reading plans isn’t just to finish reading the Bible in a year; the point is to READ THE BIBLE! God wrote every one of those precious words for our benefit, for our encouragement, conviction, and our joy. That is why I have fallen in love with a new Bible reading plan.

The Plan

The reason I love this plan is because it allows flexibility and pretty much keeps you from ever coming to your Bible with that sinking feeling of guilt (that sometimes keeps you from coming to the Word at all). It is called “Read Through the Bible Program for Shirkers and Slackers”. Pretty great huh?

Instead of being organized by dates, it is organized by days of the week. You never check off a date! Each day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…) represents a different genre of reading (O.T. Poetry, O.T. History, O.T. Prophets…). There is a selection of readings in each genre about 3 or 4 chapters long for every day. When you are done reading those chapters you simply check them off and come back to that list the next week. Here is the best part: If you don’t finish those chapters it is no big deal, you simply come back to them the next week and finish it up (maybe you start the next selection of chapters and maybe you don’t… whatever you have time for). There are no dates, so you don’t feel bad about it! If none of this makes any sense, it will when you look at the pdf. -TRUST ME.

This is not a read through the Bible in a year plan. This is a read through the Bible plan. This will help you keep track of what you have and haven’t read. It will help you get to those books that have never seen the light of day… Nahum, ehem? Isn’t that what the point is? To listen to what God has spoken? To be infiltrated with the Word and transformed by it?

It’s not too late!

So, if you were wishing you had started a reading plan on the 1st, then this is your program because it doesn’t matter when you start!

Here is the original source (probably explains it better than I did): Margie Haack

Here is the link to the PDF file: Read Through the Bible Program for Shirkers and Slackers

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