by Ryan Bush
For Christians, reading the Bible is like a plate of meat and potatoes after a day without food. It’s like a big mason jar of water and ice after push-mowing the lawn in July. It’s gulping down air after your brother has held you under the creek water longer than he should have.
I know it doesn’t always feel like that. But, your feelings don’t change the fact of what it is. I’ve found that only a decided will and a clear gameplan will keep me from veering off into neglecting Bible reading and prayer, and living as though I were the captain of my own soul.
I get up most mornings before my family so I can do this. Here’s the habit I keep:
I have 5 ribbons in my Bible. They are located in the following areas:
- OT
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- NT (Matthew-Acts)
- NT (Romans-Revelation)
My goal is to advance each ribbon every day. Here’s how it works.
I open to where the first ribbon is and I start reading at the start of the first chapter on those two pages. For example, right now my OT ribbon is in 1 Kings between pages 428-429. The start of chapter 9 is midway down page 429, so that is where I start. I keep reading until I have flipped one page and reach the end of a chapter. Then I replace the ribbon. That’s where I’ll pick up tomorrow.
Sometimes that has me reading two chapters, sometimes one. It all depends on how the Bible is laid out. I do that same thing with each of the ribbons except Proverbs. For Proverbs, I read the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month.
It takes 30-45 minutes each day. I read between 6-9 chapters per day. It keeps me in all genres and it helps me work through the whole Bible.
This, of course, is one way of many fruitful means to let the Word of Christ dwell richly within you. For those of us who treasure God’s Word and cling to Christ by clinging to the revelation that he left us, finding a way to keep these words fresh on our ears is paramount.
Ryan Bush, PhD is married to Amanda and together they are raising 5 children. Ryan serves as president of ICP | Didache Institutes, an organization that focuses on training pastors and leaders across the globe on-site and online for the glory of God and the good of the church. Contact Ryan directly by emailing gospelincontext@gmail.com.
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