Can I be totally honest? Reading through the Bible has been one of the most difficult disciplines for me to master as a believer. There have been so many years I marked my calendar to begin the New Year with eager resolve to start at Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation. But somehow, by April or May, that determination was gone. And I’d struggle with starts and stops through the rest of the year—not to mention the weight of guilt for not “measuring up” as a Christian!
I desperately wanted to read through the Word, but struggled for years with discouragement and shame in this area of my Christian development. I know that the Lord heard my cries for a more personal, intimate walk with Him, though. And He provided just what I needed! While attending a women’s conference, one of the speakers shared something that finally put the challenge of reading through the Word within my grasp. I’m almost ashamed to admit how simple it was! She said that if I read three to four chapters each day, by the end of one year I would have finished reading the entire Bible. That was it! It was just that simple . But simple doesn’t mean easy . . .
I committed to the Lord that I would meet Him in His Word every morning and read those three to four chapters. Though I have never been a morning person, and have constantly used my love of sleep as an excuse for not having an early morning time with God, a study of Proverbs cured me of that. Solomon says, “Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread” (Prov. 20:13). Now that all of my excuses were nullified, the Lord could get down to the business of talking to me.
Morning by morning, day by day, the Lord built the discipline of reading His Word into my heart until it was no longer just “reading.” It was hearing His voice! And I desperately needed that consistent anchor in my life. At the end of that year, I wept tears of joy that my Heavenly Father so patiently waited for me. There was no way to put a value on the panoramic view I now had of His Word. He demonstrated His passionate love for mankind from Genesis to Revelation, choosing a people to bring forth His dear Son—who died to save us from our sins, and who will return in the consummation of the ages. What an incredible, awesome God we serve!
The fire for His Word became contagious. I challenged the ladies in our Sunday school class to join me in reading three to four chapters per day for a year. We began each class with a brief accountability session reporting on how the week had been, and to see who needed special prayer support. Our goal was to be true women of the Word by the end of the year. What a joy it was to see how He challenged and transformed our hearts.
Would you join me, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and thousands of other women as we read God’s Word each day in 2012? His word truly is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway. “Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day!” (Psalm 119:97)
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