The plan is simple and that may be why I struggle to trust it since I make things more complicated than they really are. The plan is based on a book by James Gray called How to Master the English Bible. Great title, right?

The plan:
Read a book of the Bible over, and over and over and over (and over again!)

Simple right? Why would it be so difficult to follow through with if it is that simple? Well about the 6th time I read the same book in a row, I get bored. I start telling myself that I have seen everything that I can in this book since I have read it so many times. You ever have that problem as you start the New Year in Genesis yet again? How hard is it for you to actually engage the text of Genesis 1-3?

Anyway, it is really hard to press beyond that point and keep reading. What I am told is that if you can push through that moment and keep reading, somewhere between the 10th and the 15th time reading the same book, the clouds will part and you will see God coming down and the angels proclaiming, oh wait, that is my dream. Back to the plan. Sometime between those you will see clearly how the book flows and you will start to see things in the text that have always been there but you have never connected before.

If older saints reading the Bible faithfully for many years are still able to learn new things from the same book, then I can read the same book again. I have not exhausted everything there is to learn even in Jude, so why should I think I have grasped it all.

My additional problem is that I tend to get caught up on sections I want to think about more and study in depth. There is plenty of time for this after I do my reading. Right now I just want to read it over and over and, yes, over again.

Well, I chose Ephesians for the first book I am tackling and I have read it 8 times so far. I think I am at that point where it becomes a struggle, so pray for me in the midst of this, but I am seeing things that are tremendously helpful. I will try to share some of those things in future posts.

Another thing about this, I am not rushing through this process to get finished. At this point I don’t even know how many times I will read Ephesians. That really takes the pressure off. I simply want to read it until I get it. After that, I am going to choose an Old Testament book to do the same thing. I have no idea when I will get through the whole Bible this way, but my goal is not to get through the whole Bible in a certain time. My goal is to benefit and grow from my reading. This is a method that I think will help me do just that.

Now, lest any of you think I am throwing any Bible in a year plan under the bus, I think there are great things you can learn from reading the Bible in this way that are more difficult in my plan. If you stick with the bible in a year plan (which often seems difficult in itself) you will have a wonderful grasp of the whole bible. You will read portions that you would probably never have chosen on your own, portions you may never have read before. This can be helpful.

My suggestion is to keep reading no matter what your plan is. The power is not in a plan for reading the Bible. You grow by reading and applying the Bible. You can do that by reading the whole thing, one book or even one verse for a whole year. Do whatever you must to get into the book often. You will see the benefits if you will just read.

Michael

Tags: bible reading plan, Ephesians