How Do I Make the Most of Daily Bible Reading?

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:04.380 | We stand on the doorstep of a new year and with a new year, new resolves and with new

00:00:08.920 | resolves and new determination to read the entire Bible for ourselves.

00:00:13.200 | And knowing this is on the minds of many listeners this time of year, we enter 2019 with a series

00:00:18.020 | of episodes to address your questions about daily Bible reading.

00:00:21.480 | And here is the first one from a listener named Dave.

00:00:23.600 | "Hello Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast.

00:00:26.400 | My question is about Bible reading plans.

00:00:28.800 | Some plans are familiar, plans to read the entire Bible canonically or just the Old Testament

00:00:32.960 | or just the New Testament, and then chronological reading plans, and then two or three year

00:00:37.800 | reading plans as well.

00:00:39.400 | My question is what Bible reading plan do you recommend a first timer to use when he

00:00:43.860 | has never read the Bible entirely before?

00:00:47.200 | And can you offer some tricks to keep in mind on first read?"

00:00:51.560 | Before I actually make a concrete, specific recommendation about a Bible reading plan,

00:00:56.560 | which I will do, let me make six or so observations that might fit into the category that Dave

00:01:06.320 | asked when he says, "Any tricks to keep in mind."

00:01:09.920 | I'm not just thinking he asked about, "Give me a program," but rather, "Any tricks to

00:01:14.320 | be in mind?"

00:01:15.640 | So here's what I think he might be getting at and what I would offer in that category.

00:01:22.580 | Number one, what I would recommend for Bible reading through the Bible is it's going to

00:01:28.400 | depend on at least five things that I don't know about Dave.

00:01:34.320 | In other words, I'm qualifying my recommendation because I don't know him.

00:01:38.960 | How disciplined is he?

00:01:41.140 | How much time does he have available?

00:01:44.740 | What skill does he have in reading?

00:01:47.080 | What speed and comprehension?

00:01:48.760 | How familiar is he with all the parts of the Bible, even those maybe even he hasn't read

00:01:54.560 | at all?

00:01:55.680 | What level of curiosity does he have that might drive him to slow down and figure things

00:02:01.520 | out that are puzzling to him?

00:02:03.040 | So taking all those into account, I will recommend a Bible reading program, but I just want him

00:02:10.640 | and others to know people are really different.

00:02:14.840 | And our capacities for reading and comprehending and speed and our life situation.

00:02:22.160 | So what I recommend may not fit everybody, but I'll make a recommendation anyway.

00:02:28.720 | So that's my first thing I wanted to say about when you're thinking about tricks, know yourself

00:02:33.480 | well.

00:02:34.480 | Number two, be sure to belong to a good Bible reading church, Bible preaching church, and

00:02:42.040 | Bible reading church.

00:02:43.840 | If you possibly can.

00:02:45.440 | Few things are more helpful in grasping the totality of Scripture than a steady week in,

00:02:52.520 | week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, decade in, decade out, feeding on the

00:02:58.680 | preached Word of God.

00:03:01.200 | Oh, so important.

00:03:03.880 | If your pastor doesn't preach Bible texts and explain to you what they mean, please

00:03:11.840 | try to find another church, because the decades of your life will be gloriously transformed

00:03:21.520 | if you sit under the preaching of the Word like that for a long, long time.

00:03:26.840 | Number three, get into a group, a small group of people where you expect each other to be

00:03:33.360 | reading your Bible and taking or talking to each other about what you've seen there.

00:03:41.880 | Number four, pray earnestly over your Bible reading before you read, while you're reading,

00:03:48.880 | after you read, that God would show you what's really there and make it real for you.

00:03:55.720 | Five, set aside a place and a time where you're going to read your Bible every day.

00:04:02.160 | If you don't have a set place and a set time, Satan will almost certainly, along with your

00:04:09.080 | own flesh, more easily push your Bible reading right out of your schedule and out of your

00:04:15.960 | space.

00:04:17.680 | And number six, reading through the Bible in a year involves about four or five chapters

00:04:24.120 | a day.

00:04:25.520 | If you think you have to remember all you read while you're reading those four or five

00:04:32.120 | chapters, this will feel absolutely overwhelming and pointless.

00:04:36.080 | So I want to encourage you, when you think you have forgotten 95% of what you just read,

00:04:46.120 | that's true in the short run.

00:04:48.720 | God's Word nevertheless is lodging itself in your mind and your heart in ways you cannot

00:04:56.800 | comprehend.

00:04:58.240 | The so-called forgotten language, the forgotten paragraphs, the forgotten words, the forgotten

00:05:04.880 | stories, the forgotten points are becoming a repository from which the Holy Spirit can

00:05:13.040 | draw out things you do not even know are there.

00:05:19.120 | So when you walk away from your Bible reading in the morning, don't fret that you can't

00:05:25.960 | recite an outline of every paragraph you read.

00:05:29.960 | You won't be able to, unless you're a genius with a photographic memory.

00:05:34.120 | Instead, take one crisp, clear sentence with you, something encouraging, something motivating,

00:05:43.480 | something strengthening, something guiding.

00:05:46.760 | Write it down on a little piece of paper, stick it in your pocket, stick it in your

00:05:49.280 | purse, whatever.

00:05:50.920 | Say it to yourself over and over again during the day.

00:05:54.760 | Those same sentences, accumulated, 365 of them, an amazing power and stockpile of truth

00:06:03.320 | over time.

00:06:04.440 | So now here's my recommendation for the Bible reading program that he asked for.

00:06:10.000 | And I'm going to recommend the one that I use because that's why I use it.

00:06:12.960 | I love it.

00:06:13.960 | I think it's valuable.

00:06:14.960 | It's called the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan.

00:06:18.640 | Just Google it, you'll find it.

00:06:20.560 | Or Google best Bible reading programs through the year, it'll be one of them.

00:06:24.600 | It's called the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan.

00:06:27.240 | It has two unique features that make me love it.

00:06:30.680 | One is that every day you're reading in four different places in the Bible, which means

00:06:35.780 | that if one of them leaves you scratching your head, another one might be perfectly

00:06:42.280 | exactly what you need for the day.

00:06:45.440 | And the other unique feature is that you only are required to read 25 days out of the month,

00:06:51.800 | not 30 or 31.

00:06:53.720 | The main reason is because all of us know people tend to fall behind in their reading.

00:06:59.680 | And if you fall behind and there are no catch-up days, then in February, you're 10 chapters

00:07:04.680 | behind and you give up.

00:07:06.760 | But if you have five days at the end of every month for catch-up, you tend to take heart

00:07:12.040 | and keep going.

00:07:13.440 | Or if you're quite a disciplined reader and you never fall behind, you have this glorious

00:07:18.080 | five-day moment when you can memorize.

00:07:20.560 | This is what I do with them anyway.

00:07:23.000 | I pick a Psalm.

00:07:24.000 | I'm working through Psalm 25, Psalm 103.

00:07:27.000 | I re-memorize Romans 8.

00:07:28.840 | I re-memorize Philippians.

00:07:30.480 | This is what I do with my five days at the end of the month.

00:07:34.080 | So this morning I was reading in Gospel of John, Book of Revelation, Job, and Amos.

00:07:41.480 | No, that was yesterday.

00:07:42.480 | This morning I was in Jonah.

00:07:46.200 | And even though I can't remember the details of what I read in all three passages, what

00:07:54.360 | I saw in John 17 and what I saw in Jonah at the end, shouldn't I pity this city, 120,000

00:08:03.000 | people don't know their right hand from their left.

00:08:04.720 | I remember that.

00:08:05.720 | I remember that, but I don't remember what I saw in Job.

00:08:09.520 | What was that in Job?

00:08:10.520 | What was Elihu saying?

00:08:11.520 | I can't remember what Elihu was saying.

00:08:14.600 | But okay, I forgot Job, but I remembered a sentence that I need about being merciful

00:08:21.480 | to people who don't know their right hand from their left.

00:08:23.600 | So you get the idea.

00:08:25.160 | I love the Scriptures.

00:08:26.800 | I love to encourage people to read the whole Bible, because if we leave out big parts of

00:08:33.440 | the Bible, we probably won't know God the way we should.

00:08:38.120 | Amen.

00:08:39.120 | The entire book is important to our spiritual lives.

00:08:41.720 | Thank you for speaking these words and for not only speaking these words, but modeling

00:08:45.520 | a love for the Bible for so many decades, Pastor John.

00:08:47.960 | Thank you.

00:08:48.960 | And speaking of years, in six years, we have generated about 1,300 total episodes.

00:08:54.620 | Thank you for your interest and for your questions over those six years.

00:08:58.400 | You can search all those episodes, read full transcripts, and send us your own question

00:09:02.080 | as well at our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:09:07.580 | We are going to ring in the new year next time, talking about Bible reading again, specifically

00:09:12.640 | the desire, the act, and the reward of daily Bible reading.

00:09:16.540 | Some motive questions are on the table next.

00:09:18.800 | That's on Wednesday when we return.

00:09:20.640 | Until then, I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:09:21.640 | We'll see you then.

00:09:22.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do I Make the Most of Daily Bible Reading?

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