Are you spending time with God is His Word?
Do you have a daily reading plan?
There are a number of good plans both online and printable versions.
If you are task oriented, there is satisfaction in being able to check off the box and see the checklist grow as you read through the Bible.
But is is just as important to remember that reading God's Word is not task for the sake of task. It is to bring us into relationship and intimacy with God.
Like reading this book together, I would love for us to "sync up" and all be reading and reflecting on the same text every day. I always believe there is strength in numbers.
Please don't beat yourself up, if you don't have a plan. Consider this encouragement to research and claim one.
And as you begin to implement an intentional plan to spend time in God's Word, don't beat yourself up when you miss.
One of the plans I have enjoyed has a built in safety net - five days of reading with two catch up days per week.
So if things get hectic on a day, you can catch up on the weekends or if you are caught up, you can explore other passages.
The whole key is to be able to celebrate that you are praying more than you did before and being formed by God's Word more than you did before.
These are the key building blocks for your faith - spiritual disciplines - God's Word, prayer and formation through ACTION. We've touched on all these during this blogging series.
Here's some links to some excellent resources for Bible reflection
http://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/
http://www.navpress.com/uploadedFiles/15074%20BRP.dj.pdf (printable)
http://dailybible.americanbible.org/pdf/dbrg_2013_english.pdf (printable)
https://www.youversion.com/reading-plans
One of the plans that I really like is from the last in this list - The Cell Rule of Optina takes you through the New Testament in 89 days which seems just about right to me - reading the NT four times in a year.
Of course if you haven't read through the whole Bible, The Story, is a good way to capture the whole narrative of he Bible.
What do you use? What works for you? What are stumbling blocks?
Share below.
No comments:
Post a Comment