Bible

When You Fall Behind on Your Bible Reading Plan…

/ eortscheid / Leave a comment

It’s February. And even though I happen to be born in this month, I still will argue it is the worst month of the year. Where I live, in Missouri, it’s cold and dreary. There are few holidays on the horizon. We somehow are still recovering from that feeling that Christmas and New Year brought us. The hopes, dreams, and goals we set for ourselves at the coming of the 2023 are either still being practiced or maybe, you’ve given up on them.

One of these goals might have been reading the Bible in a year or simply reading the Bible each day. And perhaps you have decided that using a Bible reading plan is the best way to go. I am a firm believer in the use of Bible reading plans simply because they allow me to know what I am reading each day of the year rather than having to find passages to read on my own. While these reading plans are great, it can be extremely discouraging if you start a plan and fall a few days, or a week behind. This is especially challenging when you have decided to do a plan which requires four or more chapters of reading each day, like many “Bible-in-a-year” plans.

So what do you do when you fall behind? Some may decide to push themselves and read everything they have missed in a day or two. This is noble, but still very challenging to many who are new and even those who have read their Bibles for years. Many may be tempted to give up, thinking that there is no reason to continue. I hope to offer my advice and just maybe someone will be helped by it.

  • 1. God is not disappointed you fell behind in your Bible reading plan.

For those of us who feel the guilt of not finishing a Bible reading plan or even the guilt of falling behind (that’s me), it may be helpful for you to understand that God does not love you less or think of you less because of your failure to read His Word. He is not staring down with fiery disdain because you stumbled a bit when you got to Leviticus or Chronicles (shudder). Instead, the Lord only desires that you desire Him. He has witnessed my lackluster prayer life for years and yet He still loves when I pray to Him. In the same way, He longs for you to know Him as you read His Word. He wants you to discover more of Him, not to push you out because of the challenge of reading the Bible.

  • 2. Continue to for content and clarity, not to complete your plan on time.

As I wrote above, the tendency for some when they fall behind will be to read everything they have missed in one or two days. I think this is very ambitious and I would not fault anyone for trying. But, we must remember why we are reading the Bible. It is the access we have to the very thoughts of God. It the “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16) words of the Living God. This is not the textbook you skimmed in high school or college to get through. The real question you must ask yourself is did I understand something more about the character of God when I read? Did I understand something more about how I should live obediently? Do I love Christ more because of what I read? Many times you will be able to answer one or all of these questions. But, if you finish your plan on time and can’t answer any of these questions, was it really worth it?

  • 3. Bible reading will profit and bless you even if you don’t finish your plan on time.

Returning to the verse I listed above, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” I believe that is true whether you made it through all of your Bible reading plan or half of your Bible reading plan. I believe this is true because these are God’s very words. I believe this is true because God wants you to know Him more intimately. But ultimately, I believe this is true because I believe that God will keep His promises. He is faithful, even when we are not.

  • 4. Try listening to the Bible rather than reading it.

There are days when I simply have a harder time finding the time to sit down and read God’s Word than others. For those day, I am glad there are many apps that will read the Bible to me. YouVersion has a great read along feature as well as Dwell Bible. There are others, but those two are my favorite. Is there a guarantee that I will gather more from listening to it, that reading it? Probably not. But again I trust God to use His Word, even the hearing of His Word. We need to remember that much of the New Testament epistles would have been heard from the elders of the churches. If God was willing to use the hearing of His Word then, certainly He can use it today.

  • 5. Challenge yourself – You are capable of doing it!

I think many of us start the year off believing we can’t read through the Bible in a year or two, but we start the plan anyway. When we get behind, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up. But what if we had the mindset that God is using every word in His Word to change us further into His image? What if we believed that God has equipped us in such as way that we can read through His Word in a year? What if we found out that God was going to use this year of Bible reading for the advancement of His Kingdom in tangible ways in your life and in the lives of others? Would you push through the discouragement? I hope you would! Because you can do it! Pray that God would give you the resilience to push deeper.

Bible reading plans are challenging! It’s easy to get discouraged when you fall behind. But don’t let that stop you because God will use His Word in your life. He has promised it! He wants you to push forward! He wants you to know Him! He wants to feed you through His Word! So continue on. You will be glad you did!

What I’ve Learned Thus Far: Halfway Through My Bible Reading Plan

/ eortscheid / 1 Comment

img_1587I challenged myself at the beginning of the year, much like I always do, to read through the Bible  within the year. For someone looking at vocational ministry in their future (Lord willing, of course), I figured this would be a worthwhile endeavor. I’ll be completely honest here, this is not the first time I have set out to accomplish this goal. I have tried to do this nearly three or four time before and have found myself behind within the first couple of months…ok, maybe weeks…or was it days? In falling so far behind, it became discouraging. So discouraging in fact, I just gave up. This year, I fully expected it to be similar. My title says otherwise. Yes, I have made it halfway through the year and as a result, read halfway through the Bible. I am not using this post to pat myself on the back or show just how holy I am (trust me, I’m nowhere near most if not all the people who will read this post). This post instead is a couple of things I have learned in reading the Bible for half of the year.

1. Reading the Bible daily is not as hard as I thought. 

The bible reading plan I use requires me to read one section from the Gospels, one section from the New Testament, a psalm/proverb, and a passage from the Old Testament. Upon reading this, you may find yourself struggling to imagine yourself reading that much in one sitting. The great thing is that you don’t have to. While it is ideal for me to sit down and read all of my reading plan in one sitting, I sometimes find myself reading part of it in the morning and the rest of it in the evening. This has made it much easier to digest all of it. The plan I use is on the YouVersion Bible app which makes it easy to go from passage to passage without flipping through your physical Bible to do it. I have also printed out a copy of it and placed it at my desk at work as a reminder of the passages I need to read that day. Each day on the app and on the printed copy have a box which is checked off after reading the assigned passages for each day. This, as a person who likes to see progress, is an encouragement to me as I read the passage and then check off the boxes as I go. All of this has made it much easier for me to be in the Word daily rather than sporadically throughout the week.

I should also mention that the YouVerson app has streaks (much like Snapchat) which record the number of days in a row you have been reading in the app. Again, this helps me to stay motivated and “keep the streak.”

2. Reading the Bible daily is more difficult that I thought. 

Yes, this sounds like a contradiction from the point I just made. In a way, it certainly is. While I have found myself successfully completed half of the year of my Bible reading plan, I have discovered what things in my life often get in the way of reading the Bible. I can tell you that while I have enjoy spending time in God’s Word, there are often things I would rather do. There have been nights in which I have been up late reading my passages for the day because I didn’t use the free time I had during the day to do it. I have discovered, through this process, just how much time I spend on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram when I could be reading my passages for the day. I do not use all the time I have as I should. I do not spend enough time focusing/meditating on God’s Word. It is a work of God’s grace that I have made it this far. God has given me the time I need to be in His Word. I simply need to use the time He has given me well.

3. The Bible does not have to always be studied deeply to experience intimacy with God.

Before all the Reformed people jump all over me for making this point, let me first clarify. As a seminarian, I value my deep study of doctrine (I am currently studying Union with Christ). I am a strong believer in reading deeply and focusing on specific passages, verses, etc. and mining the depths that they contain. But, through this half a year, I have gathered valuable insight and a greater love for Christ simply by reading through His Word. There are times in which I have read and reread a passage several times because it was so meaningful, but I have discovered the God’s deep faithfulness in preserving a line of David among the evil kings in 2 Kings. I have admired the emotion shown in psalms I have never read before. I have reread passages in the Gospels I never understood and now understand them. All of this is not because I have spent extensive time looking at the Greek and Hebrew, but because God has revealed in in reading His Word daily.

4. The Bible is completely about Christ’s work of redemption.

There is far too much to explain here, but I will try to do my best in brief fashion. I have been taught that the above point is true. I believed this truth when I heard it back in my sophomore year of college. As I have read half the narrative of the Bible, I can surely say that I have experienced for myself. The fall in Genesis points to a Savior who will come and make all things new. The sacrificial system described in Leviticus points to the need of a Perfect Sacrifice who will come and cleanse humanity of their sins. The Gospels are filled with the work of Christ which culminates in the His death on a cross and his resurrection. The epistles point to the completed work of Christ and how, therefore, we should live because of His completed work. All of Scripture points to Christ. Look for it!

Now What?

I’m currently in the second half of my Bible reading plan. I’m in some unfamiliar territory in the Old Testament or at least, less familiar territory (I mean, who reads 1 & 2 Chronicles for devotionals). My ultimate hope is that I can finish well and complete my reading plan. I can attest to the good that reading through the Bible has had on my life. I have discovered things I have never noticed in reading some of these passages again. I have started to understand passages I did not understand the first couple of time I had read them. Most importantly, each day of reading gives me the potential to become more like Christ. It gives me a better understanding of who I am and Who God is. It gives me a better understanding of my need to repent of my sin. It gives me a love for God’s Word and for Christ. It is a daily acknowledgement that I need Christ.

Bible Reading Plan: The Discipleship Journal Reading Plan

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