As I was working on my Lenten sermon series, I came across a blog that reminded me of the importance of reading the Bible every day. I thought the points were so important, I have recopied them on my blog. Even though we are now in February, it’s never too late to make a commitment to improve your life. The following was written by 14 year old, Amanda Beguerie:
Honestly, how many of us truly read our Bibles regularly? How many of us memorize scripture? Do we see it as important? Well, according to God’s Holy Word, it is very important.
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” — Psalm 119:9-11
Do we want to live purely and make a difference in our generation? We need to live our lives according to the Bible.
Do we want to be in a good relationship with God? We need to read the Bible and memorize it.
How do we know how to live? By the Bible.
And how will we know the Bible if we don’t read it?
We can’t.
This past year, my New Year’s resolution was to read the Bible every day. Now, I had never done this before, so it took some real habit-making for this to happen for me. But now that I have kept it this far, I look back and it has changed my life.
You see, the more we read the Bible, the more we want to read it. The more we see God’s love for us, the more we love Him back and love others. The more we see the example of Jesus, the more we want to follow Him, and the more we follow Him, our life changes too.
Being a Christian is way more than just accepting death-equals-heaven insurance. It is following Christ day after day, and living as a new person in Him. How do we do that? We let go of our sin, and we start living how God wants us to. How do we know how God wants us to live?
We read the Bible.
“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” — 2 Timothy 1:13
So I want to encourage us all to do something together. It may be a small hard thing for some of us, and it may be a very big hard thing for others.
My proposal is that we read the Bible every day of 2015. But we need to do this out of true sincerity. We need to make it a habit because we want to.
This past year, I read 4 chapters every day to finish the Bible in a year. You can also find a plan online, or read even just one chapter each day. But we need to be spending time with God every day, because this is how we grow.
And you can bet that I’ll be doing it right along with you all.