“Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16 AMP

Three months ago, on January 18th, PneumaWord threw a Bible reading challenge to read through the Bible in Six (6) months. Reached the halfway mark April 18th, GLORY TO GOD! The book of Psalm is reportedly the middle book of the Bible and if you’ve been following, the last chapter in the book was read that day.

Perhaps you were really excited about the idea to read through the Bible in half a year and when you came across that blog post, it was like a heaven-sent approval nod to you, but along the line, something happened…and you gave up 😦

I’m encouraging you, please pick up from where you stopped and continue. As a reminder and also for advert purposes, I used the monthly calendars with daily readings as a profile picture/wallpaper on some of my social media accounts. In March, a lady saw this, got interested and decided to start the challenge from January; I was encouraged! You can start too, from today’s date, or use the previous months’ calendars as a guide. No matter where you are, you can be a part of this!

When we set out to take on new challenges in life most times, we normally start off quite motivated and if we don’t keep reminding ourselves constantly why we started in the first place, we could get discouraged and demotivated. The temptation to give up would certainly be there, and some do succumb to it, but do you just want to forget all you have invested, or the joy of completion and indeed knowing God more deeply, because it didn’t work out as you previously thought?

By participating in this challenge, I’ve gained insight about myself e.g. my level of discipline and commitment. Yes, I’ve fallen behind on some days, but then picked myself up and continued (still have some catching up to do, but I’m on track).  The sheer fact that I’m ‘hosting’ this challenge further motivates me to lead by example; can’t be asking others to do what i’m unwilling to!

I’ve learnt so much about God so far; it’s amazing the whole new insight and perspective gained as well, when huge chunks of the Bible are read in context, as opposed to just bits and pieces here and there (I’m not discouraging that either; by all means, get the Word of God into you).

Nope, you’re not too busy. Yep, you can create time for the Word; we honestly make time for what is important to us. To help, I’m making a few suggestions below. Hope you find them useful:

  1. Set a specific time to read the Word and stick with it: Let it be a time and location that you would not be interrupted and your mind’s at rest. Minimize distractions e.g. turn phone off/put on silent, mute notifications etc.
  2. Spend some moments in worship – it helps quicken your spirit and makes it more sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
  3. Pray – Ask God through the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of the Word to You in Jesus name.
  4. Start reading – Highlight scriptures that speak to you using a highlighter for example; journaling also helps. Basically, interact with the Word through a method that works  for you.
  5. Meditate on these scriptures – Speak them over and over again, asking God what He meant if not clear to you, wait patiently and listen in silence to what He says or quickens to your spirit.
    Talk to fellow believers about the Word, you learn a lot that way. Find out what they do to make their Bible study time interesting; you may pick a tip or two from that. Finding an accountability partner could help ‘keep you on your toes’ as well.
  6. Use resources like Strong’s and Vines’ Expository dictionary of Old and New Testament Words; they help in giving you meanings, word occurrences and some history behind the word usage, which would help your understanding. Check Resources for some tools.
  7. Put to practice what you’ve learnt.

REPEAT! 🙂

P.S. Re-attaching the calendars for the duration of the Bible Reading Challenge. Feelfree to download and share

Prayer:
Father, thank You that we live in a day and age where we have ready, steady access to your Word. Help us Lord to cherish Your Word so much, and constantly meditate upon it. I ask for your grace upon us all Lord especially for the next three months. Help those that have started and are on track to successfully finish, encourage those that have fallen off and given up to pick up from where they left and continue, and give strength and resolve to all those that are just starting off in Jesus name, amen. Thank You Father, because by July 18th, we shall celebrate in thanksgiving, for the opportunity to have read through the Bible in six months; to You be all the Glory! Amen!

God bless you 🙂
© Lydia for PneumaWord

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