Read Through The Bible

So, 60 days ago a family member of mine asked if I wanted to start a bible plan with him.

The plan was~Read through the Bible in 60 days. 😳

All kinds of thoughts~and arguments with myself~ran through my head.

⁃ If I say no, what will he think of me?
⁃ 60 days for the whole Bible?? How much time will that take me to read every day?
⁃ I don’t have time for that much reading!
⁃ I’m a pastor’s wife, I should make the time.
⁃ But I don’t have time!
⁃ Maybe I can just “listen” as I do dishes or put on my makeup, then say I read it.
⁃ I just want to read a short devotional every morning, pray and feel good about myself for putting my time in.
⁃ I don’t have time for that much reading!
⁃
Then Jesus said- “Yes you do Charisse”.
And it changed my life.

Guys, it changed my life.

I make the time to watch TV, movies and Instagram stories. I make the time to go on Facebook. I make the time to scroll endlessly through Pinterest. I make the time for relationships that are important to me. I go on dates with my husband. I spend time with my children and grandchildren.

Is my relationship with God important?

I have the time to get in Gods word.

I have the time for the One Who created me, loves me and died for me. The One Who forgave me of every wicked thing I’ve ever done and will ever do. The One Who took away my sins and gave me eternal life. The One Who gave me this wonderful, amazing, glorious, blessed life. I am spoiled beyond belief by His blessings and I was arguing with myself about giving Him an hour of my time each morning to truly get to know Him.

My eyes have been opened to so much. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. The more I read, the more I wanted to talk to Him. The more I read, the more I felt His presence, His comfort, His peace. He became more real to me each day and I couldn’t wait until the next day to read again.

I don’t usually write posts like this, but I’d like to give you some tips that helped me on this 60 day journey.

⁃ Before you ever start, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you each day. Ask Him to show you what God wants you to learn from His words. Even difficult passages with genealogies came alive to me.
⁃ Get the Bible app. You can read along with the narrator. You can also speed the narration up. I started at 1.5 speed and increased it to 2. It was difficult to follow along at first and I had to keep pausing it to reread, but eventually the speed became normal to me and it was easy to follow along.
⁃ http://bible.com/app
⁃ I was able to highlight verses on this app and later go back and highlight the verses in my physical bible as I reread them. It was like a double blessing.
⁃ Find a partner to read along with you. It helps you to stay on track and not get lazy.
⁃ At the same time, don’t beat yourself up if you have to miss a day. Life happens. God understands this.
⁃ Stop looking at God’s word as a “get out of jail” card and ask Him to help you see it as a means of getting to know Him in a deeper way. I realized how often I opened God’s word to make me feel better. I always made it about me and rarely made it about God and just loving Him and wanting to glorify Him.

We were never created to just live our lives on our own, maybe giving God 15 minutes in the morning to read a quick devotional then go about our day. We were created to live in complete fellowship with Him. To be engulfed in the gospel and have it transform our lives. To glorify him in everything we do. It is only because of God that we are here. How foolish we have become in thinking that we are living and glorifying Him by “giving” him 15 minutes of our day when He gave EVERYTHING for us.

We are a generation that binge watches Netflix, gets pulled into reality shows and social media, that does extreme diet and exercise plans to change our lives but neglect the very book that can literally transform us from the inside out.

Please don’t think that I see myself as better, or more spiritual than others for doing this. Quite the opposite. On this journey, with a clearer vision I have seen myself and the wickedness my sinful heart holds. I’ve seen how much I have taken for granted and how much I have let slide, but I’ve also seen how very much God loves me. I am so undeserving of His love and yet He redeemed me. That brings me to my knees.

I’d like to challenge you today to start a 60 day plan with Jesus. If you have never experienced God’s redeeming love, please reach out to me. There’s so much more I’d love to share.

Guys, it will change your life!!