Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge...
So in my last post, I asked for readers to ask me a question, give me something to write about. the first response was from one of my closest friends. To read his exact question go to my last post and read the comment from Dwhittingslow, but this is my response to that question.
About a year after I became a devoted Christian, I decided to work for a local organization called the Gathering Place over the summer. This organization is all about spreading God's word where I live, they have big gatherings called the Main Event where people from all over the community go to worship and here a speaker talk about Jesus Christ. My job was to do service projects in the community and help out at the Main Event. I also did daily devotionals with a small group where we grew closer to God as well as each other.
Two of the biggest things that I realized was that I did not have a daily discipline and that I really didn't know what the Bible said. I knew what I believed, I knew that Jesus had dies for our sins, and I knew the basic truths, but I really didn't know much else. That summer I read through the Gospels and most of the New Testament. I realized after that that I barely knew the Old Testament at all, so I made a plan: I was going to read one chapter of the Bible a night, starting at Genesis, until I had read through the entire Bible. As of today, after almost three years, I am at Zechariah 7, so as you can see, it's taking me a very long time.
So, why? Why wouldn't I just read multiple chapters a night? Set up a good plan and I could have read it in less than a year. So why do I only read one chapter a night? Great question! I have thought about this multiple times and this is what I've come up with:
Although my original goal was just to read through the entire Bible, I found another benefit: this is helping me build discipline. I actually have had a few nights when I have read multiple chapters, but every now and then that will lead me to think that I don't have to read the next night, which leads to a break in my discipline. So for right now, sticking with one chapter a night is great for my discipline.
O.K., so what about after you finish the entire Bible? Well, good question! After I'm done with my chapter-a-night plan, I intend to really dive into the Word. As I've been reading, I've also gone through different books to help me go into it a little more, and once I finish my reading, I plan to go through, with the superficial knowledge I have gained now, I intend to study the Word on my own. This will have been made easier because of the reading I've been doing over the pat few years.
So something that you can take from my experience is if you're a Christian you need to invest time in the Word, build up some daily discipline and really learn what God wants to say to you.
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