The Very Best Bible Reading Plan You’ll Find This Year

One of the saddest experiences I ever had happened years ago, with a family who lived one street over from a popular touristy, restaurant district. Christmas was near so I asked the teens if they had a wish list. I expected them to clamor for video games, trendy sneakers, or iPods, instead, they showed me a dozen magazine clippings of recipes.

“We think we figured out how to make this stuff if you could get us the ingredients for Christmas.”

What was on their list? Ingredients for lasagna, grilled cheese, hot dogs and beans, shepherd’s pie, and tacos. They were hungry, deeply famished. As they showed me the pictures of the food and read the directions, they spoke in dreamy tones of commonplace foods and described how they would imagine being able to sit down at a table to eat as much as they could hold. I was overwhelmed.

The family received state money for food assistance but the parent who cared for them struggled with life tasks so usually purchased only two or three items. The cupboards were stocked with ramen noodles, peanut butter, and saltines. Every day, they walked home from school through the aroma of the area’s finest eateries but they were so hungry, food was all they could imagine wanting under the Christmas tree.

Such an easy problem to solve.

Those of us working with them supplied all that their recipes required for the holidays and beyond. Then a family friend helped that parent learn how to vary the shopping. We introduced them to local church suppers and food pantries. The teens happily took over the cooking and learned to prepare a variety of meals. One of them finally observed, “Isn’t it crazy that we nearly starved to death and all the time we were surrounded by food!”

Many Christians live just like these hungry boys.

There are believers who languish in persecuted countries with no access to God’s Word. It’s understandable they would suffer from a famine of God’s Word because it’s not available to them. They go to great effort and length to secure even small portions of scripture and treasure it when they find it.

Other believers, though, live surrounded by opportunities to feast but exist in a self-imposed state of famine. You may be one.

This is how you’ll know.

Walk around your house collecting all your bibles. (Go ahead. I’ll wait.) Stack them on a table. Never mind the Bible study books or books about the Bible. Just collect the Bibles. Then, ask yourself how often you opened and read any of them in the past two weeks. (I feel it important to mention here that there is therefore no condemnation in Christ. You are loved and found in Him, you are His child and secure in eternal life even if you haven’t read the Bible in the past two months – if you’d read the Bible, you’d know this. False guilt is a waste of time. Real guilt, if you’re ready to own up to it, is already covered by Christ so this is an exercise, not in failure, but in waking up.)

You love God’s Word. You know reading the Bible daily will open you up to a deeper relationship with Him. You know that it’s better to go right to the source and wrestle with it yourself than to listen to a thousand Bible debates on Facebook. You know that time in God’s Word will increase your knowledge of Christ but also your wisdom, endurance, and love for others. I don’t even need to remind you that Paul, who loved Jesus, was an apostle, and had miraculous experiences, loved to read and study Scripture so, of course, we need it, too. Then what gets in your way?

It’s a famine induced by a glut of choices. A famine induced by the pursuit of the perfect reading plan. A famine induced by indecision and the illusion that owning twelve Bibles and being surrounded by Bibles and clicking on links that discuss the Bible are all the same as consuming the Bible with your own eyes and mind. Reading the Bible is reading the Bible and it’s the daily food every soul craves.

Allow me to speak words of freedom to you: There is no perfect reading plan. Every reading plan was devised by imperfect humans and will be employed by imperfect humans so pick one plan and do it imperfectly. When you miss a week – forget catching up – just start up again. Or, go wild and don’t follow a plan just start reading (okay, but not the start in Genesis thing because everyone dies off in Leviticus). Start in an imperfect place, maybe the middle of Isaiah. Read three chapters or five and record what you read. Tomorrow, read five more. If you miss a day, so what? If you miss a day of showering you don’t decide to skip showers for the rest of the week and start up again on Monday, you just shower, right?

Another thing. There’s no perfect day to start. Or, actually there is. Today. Today is the perfect day to begin. And here’s the best part. It’s always today. Tomorrow is a terrible day to begin reading the Bible so avoid that and start on the perfect day, today.

When I was young and single and interested in a boy, I’d be sure to hang out in places I might encounter him. If you’re interested in a relationship with Jesus, one place you’re certain to encounter Him is in His Word so it’s always a perfect place to spend time.

Pick a Bible. Any of the seven on your table. Open it. Read a portion. Ask God what the passage says about Him. What does the passage say about you? What from this passage can affect your life today? Tomorrow, read this section again and do what it says.

This is the single best way you can enter the Christmas season or the New Year or the middle of winter or any season of life. Don’t allow your soul to waste away steps away from the finest food prepared by Your Loving Father.

Today is the day, loved ones. Wake up to the power between the pages of God’s communique to all living on this outpost of Glory. Today, is the day. Read on and feel your soul revive. The pages of the Bible offer wisdom and advice on many facets of our everyday lives; here are some bible verses about business.

The Very Best Bible Reading Plan You’ll Find This Year https://t.co/2M0RYC2U8y #biblereadingplan #BibleStudy #NewYearsResolutions

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 14, 2016