My Goal

I know it's a little late for a New Year's Resolution so I won't call my new goal a resolution.  It will just be a plain ol' goal.  Besides, I don't really believe in making New Years Resolutions because by Jan 3rd I have already broken them.  I know myself pretty well.

My newest goal is to read and know the bible.  Don't hear what I am not saying (a new phrase that I have latched onto).  I  read the bible all the time in bits and pieces and in college I HAD to read it from Genesis to maps and write a summary sentence for every single chapter.  What I am saying is that I have a desire to read it and REALLY know what it's saying. To have an active understanding of it so that I can live it out.  You can't live it if you don't know it. I know verses and short passages and I even have some of it memorized but I want MORE.  Lee told me a couple of months ago about a reading plan that he heard about on John MacArthur's radio program.  I researched it and tweaked it for myself and have been putting it into practice for a couple of weeks.  My goal is to stick with it and make it such a habit that it becomes second nature.  They say it takes almost a month of repetition for something to become a habit, so I am not quite there.  It has not come easily as I am very good at finding every excuse you can imagine to not get up for reading and prayer time.  Anyone else struggle with this?  

So here is the plan: 

It's alot of reading but usually only takes me about 45 minutes to complete.

1. Read 5 chapters of the Old Testament every day (the best way is to start with Genesis but beware of Leviticus and Numbers as they can be tiresome and may make you want to stop)

** Another option is to read 3 chapters a day and then include a Psalm and Proverb every day with your 3 chapters.  I prefer the first option though. 

2. Separate the New Testament into smaller chunks of between 4-7 chapters and read that same section every day for 21 days.  

3. When you finish a book take the next day or two to read it from start to finish.  

Here is how I mapped out what I do:

Matthew 

1-6

7-12

13-17

18-22

23-28

***For example I will read Matthew chapters 1-6 for 21 days then move on to chapters 7-12 for 21 days and so on till I finish Matthew.  I will then take about 2 days to read the whole book.  After that I will move on and do the same thing for Mark, Luke and all the rest.  At this pace it will take me about 107 days to get through Matthew.  I think I will have a pretty good understanding of the book of Matthew after spending 107 days camped out there!

With this plan the entire NT gets a lot of attention and at the end of 21 days you REALLY know what that section says.  This also helps with the common problem of sitting down with good intentions to read God's Word and then having no clue where to begin.  By my calculations it will take 1048 days to read through the NT using this plan.  That's almost 3 years engrossed in God's Word.  

I have the entire NT mapped out into sections.  I can type it all out and send it to anyone who would like a copy for your own reading purposes.  

Well, now you have heard my goal.  How about you?  Got any goals you would like to share?  Snickers says she would love to hear them and I would too.

"The unfolding of Your words O Lord gives light, it imparts understanding to the simple" 

Psalm 119:130