Tag Archives: Read your bible

A Journey with No Regrets… Finally!

Posted in Reflections From My Heart by
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I did it! I finished reading my bible cover to cover. I am going to selfishly relish in my accomplishment because I have to admit that I am authentically proud of myself. I remember sitting in my living room back in July 2013, starring at my bible wondering where to start that day. Up until then, I read my bible for random bible studies (which is very sporadic and not truly a full immersion into the richness of God’s Word), or I would grab a book based on what I felt like reading and read until I felt God speaking to me, but that July Saturday morning I prayed, “What message do you have for me today, Lord?”

The answer was a nudging to read the whole bible starting at Genesis. Isn’t it just like God to give you an answer to your prayer that is the exact opposite of what you were really looking for? I was hoping more for something like, “Read Philippians to experience more joy, or Ephesians to get armored up”, but cover to cover – all 66 BOOKS – even before starting felt very defeating. I started reading through Genesis more times than any other book of the bible and I really wasn’t that interested in reading about Adam and Eve AGAIN. (Isn’t it the petty things that hang us up sometimes?)

Since it was God talking, I had to entertain the offer. Then I thought to myself, “Well, I have the rest of my life to do this, so why not? If the rapture comes and I haven’t finished, I guess I’ll learn how it ends anyway.” – There you have it, my motivational self-talk.

How Do I Get Started?

Thinking, if I’m going to do this and succeed this time, I need how some accountability. I scanned my list of highly devoted bible reading friends and just didn’t think any of them would want this long responsibility. Besides, this is my journey with God, if I have another person to work with we could slow the progress.

Next I thought of picking up a 365 day reading plan, but knew that if I missed just one day you could forget it. If I ended up having a backlog of days to read and snowballed, I would get further discouraged and give up.

My third option was to take it one day at a time, one chapter at a time, at my own self pace. For accountability, I would create a blog, this blog, called Godly Girlfriends. Even though upon its start I had no followers, I was still accountable to reading and writing about my bible journey.

Perfect! I have a plan that “I think” will work.

Having found a path and putting a committed plan in place I started both reading the bible and my Godly Girlfriends blog. Here we are 4 years later and I have obeyed God and read my bible – the WHOLE bible. The daily blogging stopped somewhere in the middle of Deuteronomy because I feel a strong conviction that it was becoming more of a task box to be checked rather than an authentic, focused, deliberate walk with God. This made my blog posts less frequent and inconsistent, but my spiritual life took off.

God and I grew together day after day, week after week. As I closed the book after Revelation 22, I had a flashback over these past years. Was it perfect? NO. I missed many days, even weeks, when I would jump back into a local bible study or when I purposefully slow down my pace to piggy back on a more inductive study with Kay Arthur (through Daniel) or Dr. Vernon McGee (through all the minor profits).

What’s Next?

My original plan was to pick up my Chronological Study Bible and do it all over again chronologically, but God put a young lady in my life who is hungry to learn and grow and her youth group is reading through 2 Kings. So I have decided to take on that book with her, to be her accountability partner and see what God has to teach me back in Kings for the time being.

They say that the teacher is the best student and I have to say, taking my knowledge and teaching it to this young lady will definitely be just that – teaching me!

Thank you for your loyalty to keep following. I will continue to share my life with you and all that I am learning and growing in my life’s journey with my BFF Jesus.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. Revelation 22:20-21

The Key to Success

Posted in Daily Devotions: Chapter by Chapter by

Secret to Success

Today’s Devotional: Deuteronomy 17

A valuable chapter which deals with the regulations that would control a king. I do have a verse that jumped out at me and inspired this blog today. It’s verse 19, “It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.”

It is written to instruct a king, but I see application for us. What if we made it personal and read it as, “God’s WORD is to be with YOU, and YOU are to read it all the days of YOUR life so that YOU may learn to revere the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of His law and these decrees?”

God may have been giving advice to prepare a king for his role as a leader, but I also know that the bible is our source for preparation in our daily lives. When I imagine the roles and responsibilities of a king I think of all the decisions he has to make, the people who are depending on him to lead them and the great responsibility on his shoulders not only in his household, but in his kingdom.

How is that different from our lives? We have decisions to make, we have people who are depending on us to lead them and we have great responsibility on our shoulders in our households and our workplaces, neighborhoods and communities. Should we need God’s Word less than any king of any land?

I think verse 19 has a very important instruction for us and I’m blogging this to help us remain firm in whatever life is throwing at us right now. You’ll find what you need in His Word and He is all we need. That may sound cliche, but I’m not intending it to be. Read, pray, meditate on his word daily. God sums it up perfectly in Joshua 1:8, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Inner Enemy

Posted in Daily Devotions: Chapter by Chapter by

Implosion

Today’s Devotion: Numbers 25

Balaam couldn’t curse Israel, but he could tell Balak what to do. So Balaam led Balak to infiltrate Israel, integrate with them, intermarry with them, and introduce idolatry to them to turn them away from God. I conclude that God gaves Balaam an answer that he didn’t like so he uses manipulation and his own influence to get what he wants anyway.

It backfires (of course), but in the meantime there is a lesson here for us. We can’t let other people do our dirty work for us. Indirect disobedience is disobedience period. What I read here is if God says, “No”, God means, “No!” We are a squirrelly bunch of sinners aren’t we? Like Balaam, we selfishly move to getting what we want through other means. For Balaam, that meant Balak would be the fall guy. Not only does Balak fall, but Balaam goes down with him – God knows all.

As we enter 2014, this is a great way to keep our hearts in check with understanding the difference between what God wants/says and what we want/do. If we put our own needs before God’s wants, we will be in some serious trouble… That’s disobedience! The ground we walk upon is not stable and the enemy, who is working overtime in our hearts, will implode the foundation in which we stand. Our motives will crumble under disobedience to God.

God is doing a lot of work in my own heart. My heart is under some serious construction and I’m seeking my strength to be obedient. I hope you have a new years resolution to allow God to work on your heart. Of course that only comes through the reading and living out of His Word. Numbers 25 might be a great start and I look forward to growing in Christ with you this year.