“O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).
Would you agree with the inspired poet?
The Bible is the only book that God ever wrote. No other piece of literature is as relevant, interesting, compelling, or powerful. God’s Book teaches us what is right, what is not right, how to get right, & how to stay right, & it gives God’s children all that they need to be mature & fully equipped for every area of life (2 Timothy 3:17; 2 Peter 1:3). Like the Psalmist of old, we have every reason to love God’s Law & to linger upon it “all the day.”
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2 – emphasis mine, DSC).
Love God’s Word & meditate upon it all day. Delight in God’s Law & meditate upon it every day. According to the Psalmist, the soul who delights in God’s Law is indeed blessed. No heaven-bound soul ever looked back over his life & said, “I wish I had spent more time on the golf course & less time in the Bible.”
God’s people need God’s word every day. Perhaps you already have a regular daily Bible reading schedule that you use. If so, that’s great! If not, we want to help each other grow closer to God by growing in the knowledge of His Word (1 Peter 2:2).
In 2023, let’s help each other grow with a structured approach to read the Bible daily. The Forest Hill elders are encouraging the members to use a Bible reading plan that involves reading one New Testament chapter each day, five days per week: this will result in reading the entire New Testament in one year. There are various schedules & plans for daily Bible reading: perhaps another plan is more suited to your abilities & goals for reading God’s inspired word in the coming year. Whichever plan you choose, be sure to maintain your daily reading. It helps to mark each passage on the reading schedule as you complete each day’s reading. It also helps to keep the reading schedule somewhere that it can’t be missed; we shouldn’t hide the schedule from ourselves, because what is out of sight is out of mind. Can we commit ourselves to making time with God’s Word a top priority, something that we remember every day, & not something we forget? Like that Psalmist, will we truly make it our meditation “all the day” (Psalm 119:97)?
In 2023, let’s help each other grow with regular reminders to read the Bible daily. The apostles regularly reminded Christians to be engaged in the study of God’s Word, whether they were elders (Acts 20:32), preachers (1 Timothy 3:14-15), or Christians in general (1 Peter 2:2). What if we reminded each other, too? What if we made God’s Word such an integral part of our everyday lives that it manifested itself in our conversations? What if we were to engage in discussions about what we’ve read over the past few days or weeks, & asked each other about how our daily Bible reading is going. Would more be encouraged to commit daily time to God’s Word? Would more be encouraged to learn to love the Lord & to learn the Lord they love? Would more grow?
In 2023, let’s help each other grow with mutual encouragement to read the Bible daily. Moses taught the Israelites to be teaching their children about God’s Word “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). In other words, God’s people were to be talking about God’s Word whether they were at home or on the road, whether they were going to bed or rising in the morning (Deuteronomy 6:7); they were constantly discussing God’s Word. Is this our habit? How often is God’s Word the topic of conversation with your family or with brethren? The more we discuss God’s Word, the more we will want to study it, & the more we study God’s Word, the more we will want to discuss it. Consider the benefits when a Christian responds to a situation occurring in the life of another brother by saying, “That sounds like something that happened to Paul that I read in the Bible last week,” or, “Just yesterday I read some advice in Romans that might help you.” Perhaps the brother facing a problem has not been spending time in God’s Word: this advice could be the impetus that causes him to become devoted in a daily study of scripture. Even if the brother facing a problem is already a devoted & consistent daily student of scripture, he could have a different reading plan & the discussion with his fellow Christian has pointed him toward a Biblical solution that he might not have found for several weeks on his own.
Again, the more we discuss God’s Word, the more we will want to study it, & the more we study God’s Word, the more we will want to discuss it. There are various ways we can broach the subject of scripture with each other: “How is your daily Bible reading going,” or “Did you read last week about what Jesus told His apostles when they were scared,” or “I read about Jesus’ crucifixion yesterday, & it breaks my heart every time that I read it.”
I promise that I will regularly mention daily Bible reading with my brethren this year in hopes of encouraging us all to spend time daily in the only book God ever wrote. Will you help, also?
Once upon a time, members of the Lord’s church were known as Bible toters & scripture quoters. The only way for this to be true of the church today or in any generation is for God’s people to spend time in God’s Word daily. Let’s say it together with the Psalmist: “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).
SCOTT CAIN