Many people might be in the boat of being slightly skeptical of bible reading plans. With no judgment towards those who do use them your explanation to those who ask you why you don’t your response is along the lines of “Well its just not for me. Good for you though. More power to ya!” or “Well, I don’t really feel fed trudging through a plan set by some old dude who studies theology for his living!” or maybe “I feel like if I were to start one, it would turn God’s word into a chore, duty, or maybe even a competitive ‘gotta get it done in a year!’ thing”. And while I would never say that these statements are in themselves wrong. Quite to the contrary, I believe that some of these concerns are quite valid. My point in exposing these statements that I have said for a while is to somehow chastising those who don’t use bible reading plans, but rather to appeal to them that it can be a unbelievably valuable resource. And recently I have found that all of the above statements that I once said out of a very common cocktail of godly and foolish pride have been untrue for me in my usage of a plan. I will merely give you an example that really blessed me in my quiet time this moring. Once again, I want to make very clear that I look down on none who feel fed by reading a specific book or subject where they feel God is speaking, correcting, and revealing himself to them in their quiet times.

This morning my bible reading plan called the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan, scheduled me to read 1 Kings 17-18. I decided since I’ve been slacking off in reading the old testament portion that I would double up to read through chapter 20. Chapter 17 begins to describe the evil reign of Ahab and how God begins to use Elijah in the time where he sent a drought for 3 years. As you begin to see the writer describe Elijah’s actions you begin to see his uncanny faith and ferocity in doing the work of the Lord. Elijah was outraged over the complacency of the Israelite people and their worship of other gods. Elijah’s driving force in his journeys and actions of a prophet resemble that of a modern day husband in a movie who swears to avenge his wife’s death by traveling the world and finding her murderers himself. One of the stories described in chapter 17 is where Elijah stays with a widow from Zarephath and her son. Because of the drought the widow and her son are dying of starvation. Through Elijah, God gives her house food, raises the son from death, and builds the womans faith in God. This story is seemingly irrelevant to the grand story of Ahab’s evil and the resulting drought. Through the story of Elijah destroying the prophets of Baal at Mount Camel, I was left awestruck at how confident Elijah’s faith was in God’s work. He was so faith driven that God was going to reveal himself through miracle to the people that he acted without hesitation and goes so far as even taunting the priest of Baal to send rain.

So far, Ive been pretty blown away by how God worked through Elijah. I went on to my reading of the new testement. The scheduled reading was Luke 4. I read first about the temptation of Christ. I went on to read about Christ teaching in the synagogue at Nazereth. Jesus reads about the prophecy of the coming savior an makes it clear it he the scripture speaks of. Jesus the refers to the exact story in 1 Kings about Elijah and the Widow. This obviously was not coincidental I’m sure for the passages to be in the same daily reading. As Christ speaks to his peers, he says in blunt words how they will reject him. Jesus speaks to them almost as if they are now anticipating him to reward them since he is the messiah. But Jesus goes on to explain that there were many widows in that area in Elijah’s time but God led him to that one. Jesus is basically saying I think “Some will gain from my coming and some will not.” The crowd is outraged and proceeds to try and kill him.

My point in explaining all this is to show you how God revealed certain things in His scripture via the usage of the reading plan. I was able to see this connection between these old testament accounts and how they point forward to the savior. This structural method of breaking apart God’s Word, I have found is not as systematically dutiful as one might think. In being able to have a concise tool for familiarizing myself with God’s word, I have been wonderfully fed. A duty it is still, but a delightful duty at that were I am able to daily see God’s Word as a holistic narrative of God’s great redemption of mankind. It has been wonderful. It is not he only way to go and trust me there are pitfalls along the way, but God is good and it remains his word. He will surely reveal himself to you through His word no matter what method you use. I only need to remind myself daily that I am becoming more and more familiar with God as I read his word. I must bask in it. Feel starved without it. It is my bread. It refreshes my soul. God is great and we are blessed to be able to so much as carry around a bible or two without even flinching. Let us remind ourselves of this lest it looses value to us.