A.W. Tozer wrote in The Knowledge of the Holy: “The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.”
May our plans for the new year have time with The Almighty at the top of the list – rediscovering His majesty, holiness, divine power, and His enablement for us to fulfill our calling and to walk in a manner worthy of that calling (Eph. 4:1).
We need the encouragement that is found in daily being in His life-giving, living and active Word.
The “must” of being in His Word is one of my life messages, and I feel a now more than ever: we must dedicate ourselves to know the truth of His Word and to prayer – to pray His Word, to pray according to His Word, to listen to His voice, and to obey.
And, honestly, all of this just doesn’t happen without a plan!
I have a Bible reading plan I love that you can download here: My Favorite Reading Plan. It can be folded and used as a bookmark to mark off as you go. But I encourage you to use whatever has worked best for you. Just have a plan! I always also read through the NT slowly throughout the year and study deeply somewhere in Scripture. I believe these are all so important for us to know and live the Word. I plan to read a chapter in the NT each day this year which will get me slowly through the NT before getting there in the reading plan in October.
I’m also including a link below to the type of chart we used for the 21 day challenge and the following encouragement from that challenge for the person who is hearing/feeling the resistance of “I don’t want to be legalistic about daily being in the word and checking boxes”.
First, there’s a mindset shift from “I have to” to “I get to”. What a blessing we have to sit and read a book that is like none other! It is living and active, and God-breathed, and through it we experience His love and goodness and our faith is grown in His truth that “with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).
AND Jesus said that we will not live by bread alone but that we WILL live “‘on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God'” (Matt. 4:4). Oh, to not neglect hearing His words in scripture and listening in prayer!
And think about this: no one has ever said, “You know, I just don’t want to be legalistic about eating meals every day.” Never would eating be looked as such! And here we have the bread of life!
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.'” (John 6:35)
May the Word of God become not only a daily nonnegotiable but something we daily consume for our very life sustenance.
The 31 day chart link can be used to keep tabs on any habit that you would like to establish. I’ll share some of my thoughts on how I’m using mine next week.
Happy New Year!
With love,
Traci
