Daily Bible Reading
To prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan, each month of this plan gives you only twenty-five readings. Today we start a few “free days” . We encourage you to catch up on any readings you may have missed this month.
If you have finished the month’s readings, you can use these final days of the month to study the passages that challenged or intrigued you.
Daily Devotion
One of my “candy sticks” is talking about the importance of the Word of God. It has helped me through my darkest days, helped me sleep when plagued by insomnia, given direction for my prayers. The Word of God is my lifeline. It connects me to the One who sees the beginning from the end. We have to read the Bible every day!
This past month the Lord showed me another reason His word is so important and why we need to read it DAILY. God knows our thoughts, He knows what we are battling. Every situation we are faced with can be found in the Word of God. Truly there is nothing new under the sun!
For an example, let’s say I have a friend or loved one that is trying to get me to walk away from God and I have been considering it. God knowing this has me pull out my daily Bible reading chart and I read Deuteronomy 13:6-8.
“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:”
After reading these verses, I will have the strength to say, “NO! I am not going to let my relative or closest friend draw me away from the Lord!”
Scripture says with every temptation we are given a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). What if that way of escape comes through the WORD OF GOD??? If I am not reading, washing my mind daily with the truths presented in the Word of God, my mind and heart will get a build up of JUNK and won’t think properly, the way God created it to think. We were created to worship and praise the Lord. We have to stay in good running order, maintained by times of prayer and reading the word DAILY.
Deuteronomy 17:19-20 tells us our Bibles are IMPORTANT! These were instructions should Israel choose a king. We are kings and priests as well according to Revelation 1:6. So, these principles laid out in Deuteronomy are applicable to us today. We need to:
- Keep the word of God with us at all times
- Read it daily
- It teaches us to fear God
- It prevents pride
- It prevents backsliding
- It ensures your family will continue to reign as a king
The sword of the spirit is the WORD OF GOD. If we don’t DAILY arm ourself, we won’t have the weapons to fight what comes at us. I am continually amazed at how my daily reading fights against the thoughts I have been combating. Or, what I have been reading helps me be equipped to give a word fitly spoken to a friend I talk to that day.
In computer programming…no input…no output. Programmers tell the computer how to respond to situations presented. What is being put INTO my mind? Am I listening to false teaching, worldly music, negative friends? Or, do I have worship music playing in my home? Books that challenge me to combat depression, stress, anxiety, bitterness? Friends that pray for me and send me scriptures to fight alongside me the war waged against me? Whatever input I receive will affect my output. The Word of God is the best input we can have! Everything else we partake of needs to line up with the words written in it.
~ Sarah Seagraves