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Reading the Bible consistently is essential for Christians. The Bible is about God, and its center and goal is the glory of Christ. To know God and follow Christ we must read His Word. One of the problems we often have with our New Years Bible Reading commitments is that we approach the task with a wrong frame of mind.
The goal of Bible intake is to know and love God.
This is a reminder that our goal is not to complete a Bible reading plan but to know and love God. The plan for Bible reading we use is a tool and not a goal. When finishing our chosen plan becomes the goal it becomes our focus. I have known people who are reading far more of the Bible using the plan they have chosen but feel like failures because they are reading with the wrong goal. Stopping in the middle of a daily Bible reading in order to ponder a particular truth that causes you to pray and worship is a good thing–even if you do not finish the reading.
Read the Bible as an adopted child of God and not merely for self-help.
The Bible calls us to apply our lives to its story that centers on Christ and his gospel. There is a world of difference between reading Scripture rummaging for facts to fix self-defined problems and reading Scripture as an adopted child of God who desperately wants to know your history and family story. We must not simply attempt to learn from the Bible but to live within the story of the Bible—the gospel. In Christ, all of the stories in the Scripture are our stories. We should long to develop a gospel accent and to walk in line with our new family gospel story.
Talk about something from your Bible reading with someone every day
The simple discipline of talking about something in your Bible reading with someone each day has several benefits: (1) Doing so forces you to share what you are learning with others and will keep the truth on your mind. (2) We always share what is important to us with others. The communal openness of our allegiances serves to root them in our affections at a deeper level. (3) What you talk about with others helps you to gain a greater understanding of it. Think about the fact that you cannot learn a language if you merely study the language. You will never really learn a language unless you speak it.
Need further motivation to read the Word more in 2019? See below:
The Bible teaches us the character of Christ:
John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
The Bible provides us light to live by:
Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
The Bible guides us in a path of wisdom:
Matthew 7:24-25, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. –
The Bible helps us mortify sin:
Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
The Bible provides truth for sanctification:
John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
The Bible nourishes us for fruit bearing:
Psalm 1:2-3, “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
The Bible is God’s very Word and thoroughly equips us to serve Him:
2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
This article first appeared at David’s website and is posted here with his permission.
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David E. Prince is the Pastor of Preaching and Vision at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church (Lexington, KY) and a professor of Christian preaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY). He holds degrees from Huntingdon College (B.A.), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Ph.D.). He played baseball in high school and college and coached high school baseball and football after college. Additionally, he and his wife, Judi, have eight children that they have worked diligently to disciple toward faith and maturity in Jesus Christ through the context of athletic competition.
