Now, what about the Lord’s company? Did you know His presence with you each day in 2020? Will you enjoy His close friendship in 2021?
To do so, you must interact with Him. You must speak to Him and listen to Him. Listening to the Lord equates to reading His Word, attempting to understand it with the Holy Spirit’s help, and then applying it.
I want to suggest a plan for the year ahead. This plan is not ‘Read Your Bible in One Year’, although that can be a good plan. This plan is simply to meet the Lord face to face every day. To put it another way it is to ‘Create a Habit of Enjoying your Bible Every Day’. For some, reading the whole Bible in a year seems to be a mountain too difficult to climb, and so they don’t bother trying. For others, they’ve tried and failed time after time.
Reading all of the Bible is, of course, important, but to set an arbitrary time limit can have a negative impact. It may be better to read a smaller section every day, and to think for a few moments what that section reveals about God: His character, His promises, His instruction for you.
Over the year 2020 I read one chapter of the Bible first thing every day and I thought carefully about that one chapter and took a few notes in a journal. This took me between fifteen and thirty minutes each morning. It has been a joy. If I continue, I will complete the Bible in just over three years. My comprehension of Scripture, and my fellowship with the Lord each day has been enhanced.
Finally, remember grace. Some people fail to create a daily reading habit because, when a day is missed, they condemn themselves. This is the wrong way of looking at it. God has given us every new morning to begin again, every new week to begin again, every new month to begin again. So, let’s take the opportunity of this New Year and begin again.
