I have been thinking lately about getting a “through the Bible in a Year” schedule. I little late I know being we are well into the first month of the year. I haven’t read the bible that particular way in many years which is probably why it came to mind, much like most people think of New Years resolutions. I do believe a reading schedule is of great merit and has its place, but I am afraid for many it becomes a yoke and a burden to bear. If you are someone who truly operates in grace rather than law this probably isn’t an issue. But for many the focus becomes about the accomplishment of completing “the schedule” rather than a tool to better know the Lord and procure a greater measure of His Presence. I have found this personally to be the case with just about any discipline we might put in place with the sincere intention of becoming more like Christ.
I remember a time when the Lord actually had me lay aside the discipline I had developed of reading every morning because it had become a snare. I became surrendered to my discipline of reading and praying but He wanted to teach me how to be surrendered to Him. The way He put it to me was that I had developed my own standard of righteousness, although unintentional. I had this list of things that I had to check off everyday and if I got through the list then I felt worthy of His presence and if I didn’t get through the list well there were varying degrees of His presence. It seems so ridiculous now but at the time that was my reality. Needless to say I lived on a spiritual roller coaster. My relationship with Him was all about living up to a letter of the law (of my own making) and God forbid anyone should need anything from me that would hinder me from accomplishing my “duty”. This is the reason I stayed away from the Bible in a year schedule for several years. It is amazing how intentional we can be and still miss the whole spirit of the gospel in the process. We can feel so good about ourselves because of our accomplishments and yet actually resent Jesus for interrupting us from meeting our goal to demonstrate the heart of His message.
He isn’t a law or some ideal or philosophy; He is the face of our Father in a resurrected person and wants us to know Him intimately. Living to keep the letter of the law in whatever form it takes so gets in the way of that, plus it puts the focus on us rather than Christ. The word says that we have all sinned and fall short of His glory and we are all saved by grace, not of works so that no one should boast. Exalting a Bible reading schedule at the expense of missing the Presence of the one who wrote it defeats the very purpose of it, at least in my opinion. I am not against reading schedules they just have to be kept from being exalted above the one who wrote it to begin with. Reading the Word is an absolute necessity to know Him and be transformed into His image we just need to read it with the intention of finding Him not meeting a goal.
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