Ever wanted to read through the Bible!!

Having a Plan Helps Us Know Where to Start. We believe God desires that every Christian become a “self-feeder” reading the Bible for themselves and applying it to their own life. There are many good ways to do that, but one method that many of us at Gwathmey have found to be simple but effective is what we call the Life Journal Reading Plan. John 14:26 says God will send His Holy Spirit to teach us all things. The Holy Spirit is present within every follower of Christ and is eager to be our teacher and guide for our personal life.

To participate in the Life Journal Reading Plan, start by choosing one of two reading plans…

Short Plan: Goes through the entire New Testament and an overview of the Old Testament in a year: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/14-first-steps-reading-plan

Original Plan: Goes through the whole Bible—the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice – in a year. Then go through these steps:

https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/3-life-journal-reading-plan

The Life Journal Reading Plan is simple, but if you do this faithfully, God will use it to speak to you. He says in Psalm 32:8, “I will teach you and instruct you in the way that you should go.” God wants to help you understand Him and follow His ways. 

We want to encourage everyone to make 2023 the year you read through the Bible. Click the links below for more great Bible Reading Plans. You can print one or get it in an email every day, whatever is best for you.

Reading Plan App

https://www.bible.com/reading-plans

http://www.esv.org/biblereadingplans 

http://www.christianity.com/bible/year/

https://www.biblereadingplan.org/start-here/

https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans

http://www.thebiblerecap.com/start

Pick a time and place where you will not be disturbed or distracted.

Start by inviting God to speak to you through His Word. Read through the portion for the day in a modern translation of the Bible.

As you read, have a journal or notebook open to a blank page to write your thoughts, following the acronym “SOAP”.

S: Scripture

O: Observation

A: Application

P: Prayer

Scripture: As you read the entire passage for the day, select just one or two verses (or even just a few words) that you feel led to focus on in your journaling for the day. Trust that this one thought, which somehow stands out to you more than the rest, is what God will use to speak to you personally today. Write that verse out in your journal.

Observation: Observe what today’s reading says about the thought God pointed out to you in the “S” step above. What does the surrounding chapter help you understand about it? What did the writer want people back then to know? Write out a few sentences telling what you notice about that topic out of your reading for the day. The intent here is not to take notes on the whole chapter, but to zero in on one subject. 

Application: Now consider how this applies to you personally. What does God want you to do in response to what you have read? How might He want you to change? Or what help and encouragement is He offering you? Let God speak to you about your own life, and write what you sense He is saying. 

Prayer: Write out a brief prayer based on what God has shown you today. This may be a prayer of thanks for what He has done for you, or you may need to admit some area where you have fallen short and ask for God’s forgiveness and His help to change. God is eager to help you do what He has brought to your attention, if you invite Him to do so. 

As you close, you might want to give your journal entry a title and a subject heading. The subject will be general, such as “prayer”, “faith” or “love”. The title should express in a few words what you learned. These enable you to go back and track what God has shown you.