Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your Word.
Psalm 119:11,16
Why should I read?
The Bible is the power of God for your life. All the words of the Bible are God's very words (2 Timothy 3:16). Moses says that God's words are not empty, but they are our very life (Deuteronomy 32:47). Jesus says man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Just like food empowers and nourishes us for physical life, God's Word empowers and nourishes us for spiritual life. We desperately need God's Word everyday.
Do we want God's Word in our lives? Do we desire it? Do we see it as a treasure? We need our hearts to fall in love with God's Word. We need to learn how to lead our hearts to desire God's Word more and more in our lives.
Do we want God's Word in our lives? Do we desire it? Do we see it as a treasure? We need our hearts to fall in love with God's Word. We need to learn how to lead our hearts to desire God's Word more and more in our lives.
How does a reading plan help?
At the Bridge, we hope that this reading plan helps each of us to step into the practice of daily devotional Bible reading in order to be spiritually nourished, grow into maturity, and thrive in our relationship with God.
To this end, a reading plan is helpful in several ways. First, it offers a place to start. Don't know what to read? Daily assignments from the Old and New Testaments across multiple genres give you daily text if you aren't sure where in your Bible to start reading. Second, it provides community and accountability. Find a friend (or two or three!) to read with, and you have a built-in system for encouragement, discussion, teaching, prayer, reading reminders and more. Third, it helps establish a habit. Maybe you don't get to every passage everyday, and maybe you don't even get to every daily assignment. That's okay! Keep going, you are doing the good work of establishing a daily commitment to sitting down and engaging with scripture, however that looks for each unique day.
To this end, a reading plan is helpful in several ways. First, it offers a place to start. Don't know what to read? Daily assignments from the Old and New Testaments across multiple genres give you daily text if you aren't sure where in your Bible to start reading. Second, it provides community and accountability. Find a friend (or two or three!) to read with, and you have a built-in system for encouragement, discussion, teaching, prayer, reading reminders and more. Third, it helps establish a habit. Maybe you don't get to every passage everyday, and maybe you don't even get to every daily assignment. That's okay! Keep going, you are doing the good work of establishing a daily commitment to sitting down and engaging with scripture, however that looks for each unique day.
Tools for the job
Relationships take work. The best relationships take a lot of work. Reading the Bible is the work of growing our relationships with God. A true, substantial relationship with God is built on the work of daily Bible reading and spending time with God.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you begin your reading plan:
- Commit to all 12 weeks, whatever that looks like! If you are able to read each passage and never miss a day, amazing! If you miss days but jump back in and keep going, you're awesome! Maybe you don't want to start with all 3 passages every day, that's okay! Pick one or two of the passages and start there; that's fantastic! Don't give up just because you missed days or feel overwhelmed by the amount of reading. If you missed, jump back in. If it's too much reading, pick a single passage per day. Start with what is appropriate for you, and go the whole 12 weeks. We are working to establish a daily habit, not just check boxes.
- Each passage is approximately 30 verses long. All the passages together take about 15 minutes to read, and you can read all of them each day, or only some! They are all more or less the same length.
- Pray that the Lord stirs your affection for His Word. Our souls were designed to delight in the words of our Creator! Even so, sometimes reading the Bible can feel like a chore, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to love the things we ought to love. As you go, be praying that the Lord would soften your heart to treasure His Word, and that He would order your desires so that scripture becomes as vital to your day as food and water.
- Find a crew. You can absolutely complete this plan alone, but we are excited to be reading the same portions of scripture together as the Body! This puts us all on the same page, literally, for the next 3 months. Find people to discuss passages with, see what the Spirit revealed to them, or what prompts the Lord is giving them for prayer. Reading with a group gives us extra eyes into what the Lord is doing and working in His people during this time.
- Study well. If you are at a point where you would like to do a deeper study of one or more passages, we recommend the CIA method as taught in our Bible Literacy classes:
Comprehension (What does the passage say?)
Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)
Application (How does the passage change me?)
If you would like more guided prompts to study and reflect on a passage, the complete CIA method handout can be found here.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you begin your reading plan:
- Commit to all 12 weeks, whatever that looks like! If you are able to read each passage and never miss a day, amazing! If you miss days but jump back in and keep going, you're awesome! Maybe you don't want to start with all 3 passages every day, that's okay! Pick one or two of the passages and start there; that's fantastic! Don't give up just because you missed days or feel overwhelmed by the amount of reading. If you missed, jump back in. If it's too much reading, pick a single passage per day. Start with what is appropriate for you, and go the whole 12 weeks. We are working to establish a daily habit, not just check boxes.
- Each passage is approximately 30 verses long. All the passages together take about 15 minutes to read, and you can read all of them each day, or only some! They are all more or less the same length.
- Pray that the Lord stirs your affection for His Word. Our souls were designed to delight in the words of our Creator! Even so, sometimes reading the Bible can feel like a chore, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to love the things we ought to love. As you go, be praying that the Lord would soften your heart to treasure His Word, and that He would order your desires so that scripture becomes as vital to your day as food and water.
- Find a crew. You can absolutely complete this plan alone, but we are excited to be reading the same portions of scripture together as the Body! This puts us all on the same page, literally, for the next 3 months. Find people to discuss passages with, see what the Spirit revealed to them, or what prompts the Lord is giving them for prayer. Reading with a group gives us extra eyes into what the Lord is doing and working in His people during this time.
- Study well. If you are at a point where you would like to do a deeper study of one or more passages, we recommend the CIA method as taught in our Bible Literacy classes:
Comprehension (What does the passage say?)
Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)
Application (How does the passage change me?)
If you would like more guided prompts to study and reflect on a passage, the complete CIA method handout can be found here.