Let me share my long time approach to daily Bible reading and meditation. I find it greases my ‘get-along’ in order to slip easily into an actual engagement with God in His holy Word.
This is what I do: I keep six bookmakers in six different places in my NASB or NKJV study Bibles and try to read from each passage about ten or fifteen minutes daily.
ONE is at a chapter in Proverbs. There being 31 chapters in this Book of wisdom, it must be profitable to read one each day of the month. So, each first day of a month my marker is at chapter one.
A SECOND marker is somewhere in the four Gospels, reading them over and over: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and again, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, etc. I delight seeing and hearing Jesus during His earthly sojourn. What does He say, how does He handle situations, how does He respond, what teachings come forth? How do holiness and love blend in His life? Gazing on Jesus is seeing God. My understanding of who God is increases chapter by chapter.
Then, a THIRD marker finds me reading consecutively from Acts through Revelation. The history of Acts, the doctrine and instructions in the church epistles, the same in the pastoral epistles and the insightful book of prophecy are, of course, all-important.
The FOURTH one is somewhere in the O. T., wherever I want to go. I’m either In the Pentateuch, the history books, the prophecies or the books of wisdom. I delight making the choice each time I decide upon a new book to read. I usually sense a particular need and make my choice under the Spirit's guidance.
The FIFTH reading is a round robin in four favorite prophetic passages, Isaiah 58-66, Daniel 9-12, Ezekiel 36-39 and Zechariah 12-14, giving me such fascinating details of things to come. When I'm done with Zechariah, it's back to Isaiah 58:1.
And finally, the SIXTH marker guides me each night to reading one or two of the one-hundred-fifty Psalms. These give me big thoughts for worship and about my glorying in my God. They teach me about faith in tough times. These are indeed precious concepts with which I lay my weary head on my pillow.
This works in an endearing way for me. It is God teaching me every day. I treasure and look forward to these daily times with God. And, really, can daily life be boring with such appointments with my dear Heavenly Father in such ongoing communion? The Scriptures are so pregnant with meaning. There are always new truths to learn whereby my faith is informed and built up, my mind fortified against the wiles of the devil. Each verse is a rich well of unfathomable depth.
I brag not, I’m just sharing what blesses me. Many days I fall short and find myself hastily reading at least a little from each place. I'm bothered when this happens. That's when I bark at Sherrill (just kidding, er, well maybe sometimes).
A program like this has to be top-priority, day by day. And I must remember what's happening when I so engage. It is God talking to me, teaching me, ever comforting me, correcting me, chiding and enlightening my poor dark soul. His Word is without error and the different styles of literature ever fascinating. The uniqueness of the Bible as literature, let alone as Divinely inspired (2 Corinthians 3:16,17), is incentive enough to keep coming back for more.
Arthur W. Pink brings this into perfect focus: "To realize that the Holy Scripture are a revelation from the Most High, communicating to us His mind and defining for us His will, is the first step toward practical godliness. To recognize that the Bible is God's Word, and that its precepts are the precepts of the Almighty, will lead us to see what an awful thing it is to despise and ignore them."
The bookmarks allow me to go right where I need to go with no hesitation at all. With any delay at all my attention could easily be diverted. But, what could ever be more vital than hearing from one's Maker, Savior, Lord and Hope?
Haldor Lillenas puts it exquisitely in his hymn: "The Bible stands like a rock undaunted 'mid the raging storms of time. Its pages burn with the truth eternal and they glow with a light sublime." Thank God that He spoke to us poor lost souls, clearly told us the way back to Himself through His Son Jesus, the Christ, and then instructed that His message be written down and preserved through the ages for our salvation and knowledge of the truth. What a God He is to come to us so marvelously.
And, if 10 or 15 minutes at each of the six places is just too much, five minutes would be only 30 minutes a day to bask in the euphoria of reading God's love letter to me.
- dick christen
