Getting into The Best Book Ever is Hard

We live in a time period of distractions, things that keep us busy and eat up all of our time. It’s hard to find a break sometimes to just kick back and veg out. Sometimes when I get through a big stretch of studying for a bunch of tests and/or doing a big research paper, I just want to kick back and watch TV or just plain go to sleep. Doing anything that requires any mental or physical effort is the last thing I want to do. I know most of you know what I’m talking about. My dad always says Mental work is more difficult than physical work but let me tell you, spiritual work like picking up the bible and reading some Leviticus after you just got home from school is a whole other ball game! The bottom line is, you just don’t want to. When you finally do pick up the Bible, the next challenge is deciding where to start. A lot of people are successful with just spontaneous reading, but I know there are others like me who can’t start a book in the middle somewhere and do better with a structured reading plan. The benefit of reading plans is that you have a goal to focus on.

I have tried several reading plans growing up and I have not found one that works for me until now. One reading plan in particular was a weekly thing in that I had to read many chapters in one week. This didn’t work because I would procrastinate until the last day and passively read through the word, not comprehending or reflecting on anything. This year I purchased a Life Application Study Bible that has a nice 365-day daily reading plan in the back of key selections in the bible. It rarely ever exceeds 30-40 versus and only takes 10-15 minutes to read and reflect on by reading the foot notes and writing my thoughts down in a notepad. It starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation. It's perfect for me because I am able to really study that little selection and reflect on it in depth and detail each day.

Even though there are soooo many other things for me to do, productive or not, I find it much easier to sit down right before bed and commit 15-20 minutes of my time to reading the Bible. I know it’s hard to get started and commit to it but I encourage you to seek out a reading/reflecting plan that works for you: one that is not too demanding of your time and also gives you enough time to reflect on what you read. There are many ways to approach reading the bible, but the bottom line is that we need constant reminders of what God has done for us and continues to do.

Naaman

BBYM Drummer