It's Bible Bail-Out Month!
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February is "Bible Bail-Out Month." By my calculation it's the time when most people bail out on their New Year's Bible reading resolution...and I know why.
One of the myths of the Christian life is that you should read through the Bible every year, the whole enchilada or else. And it doesn't count unless you use the snow plow method, that is, you start reading Genesis in January and you plow all the way to Revelation by December.
But that's why February is Bible Bail-Out Month. It's the time when most people get to Leviticus, and uh-oh, the Bible reading plow bogs down. What follows is a few weeks of guilty inaction that can be relieved only by picking up a copy of Our Daily Bread at the back of the church. "Oh well, maybe next year."
My suggestion is that instead of trying to swallow the entire Bible ever year, we make it our New Year's resolution to get a steady diet of God's Word every day. And let's not worry if we miss a few days throughout the year. Trust me, you will.
Just find a Bible reading plan that takes you to all parts of the Bible, reading a chapter or less per day, then stick with it. And if you fall behind, take the Bible reading advice my Dad gave me years ago, "Start today, and go forward." It's our enemy who wants to turn Bible reading into a guilt-driven chore. It's our Heavenly Father who's waiting to meet with us in his Word.
What really makes a difference in our spiritual lives is not how much of the Bible we read every year. Rather it's how much of the Bible we remember and apply every day. So make that your goal, starting today.
Awsome. This is so true. I do this to myself all the time. Yes, I know it's God's word. But when it becomes a chore and something to punish myself with, it's easy for me to back out. Then I find myself saying "oh well, just pile it up with everything else i'm not doing or doing wrong." This is an encourgement I needed and it came at just the right time. Thank you so much for your work!!
So true... And I would like to point out that Scripture Union free email reading guide makes it even easier to follow through. I have been using it for a while now and truly enjoy it.
Thank you.
How true. I too were under the impression that if only you read the entire Bible every year, you are a true Christian till I started another practice. For the last three years, what I do is read book by book. It could be one verse or even two chapters, depending on the content. But one thing I make sure is I keep a note of what I understood from that, what I did not understand and what were the interesting things in that portin. This has helped me read the Bible regularly and also to go back to any portion I read earlier.
This has been my take for a long time. Thanks for putting it out there.
"shipwrecked on the shores of Leviticus" as they say...
We're also working our way through the Bible with a series of videos and theologians... hope you might check it out at www.bibledex.com
The Leviticus video deals with the exact issue you posted on!
Thanks to 'Encounter w/ God' I have had 100% success rate with my reading plan for over a year! I love the amount of reading and never feel overwhelmed. I ,too, tried reading the Bible in a year. I made it but got hardly anything out of it bc I was on the 'snow plow' method. I then tried devotionals, which are great, but it wasn't helping me to know the Bible. I intend to use SU helps for years to come. Thank you!