Bible Reading Plan Part 2

I mentioned in yesterday's post that in January Greg and I started reading the Bible using Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Bible reading plan for the year (please see the September 10 post for more details).

I mentioned in yesterday's post that we are enjoying reading through the Bible in this way, and we're finding it beneficial. What I didn't mention in yesterday's post is that we have struggled keeping up with the plan a bit. We stayed on track January through the beginning of May. In May I took a trip out to California (for five days), and Greg and I have been struggling to catch up ever since. With approximately four chapters of reading a day, it doesn't take long to get behind. We have been struggling to catch up and we were starting to get discouraged (we were at least a month behind the plan at this point).


Today, I made the decision to start reading my personal reading from the place where the plan recommends today (starting over in a sense) and not trying to catch up. I recommended this plan of action to Greg for our family reading as well. He thought that sounded like a good idea. So, we skipped ahead to the reading for September 10 instead of floundering back in July (for family) and August (for personal).

I didn't want to give up on it. I want to stick with this plan not for legalistic reasons but because it offers a structure that has been very helpful to our family.

Here's a few other benefits I have found from following a plan this year:

• Our pastor is following this plan as well, so he often reads from his daily readings at the beginning of Sunday services or preaches on the text during a Thursday or Sunday evening service. I enjoy that, and for this reason it is helpful to be reading the text he is reading at the same time and becoming familiar with it.
• By reading through a plan, I am finding myself in parts of the Bible that I would not have made myself read through on my own. It challenges me to think and to understand what is going on in that particular passage. It challenges me to understand the text as it is written and not to smash my circumstances into the meaning of the text. For example, right now we are reading in Ezekiel for the personal reading. I am loving it. I am surprised by this. I would not have started reading Ezekiel on my own.
• It keeps me in God's Word every day, which allows me to know Him more and love Him more.