God's Revelation Written for Us

Testimonies About Reading God’s Word

We know that remembering to read the Bible by ourselves can be difficult. Sometimes we need a little help. That’s why we have our Summer Bible Reading Challenge beginning in June. Our reading plan is designed to get you in the Word each day. You can find more information and sign up here.

But don’t just take our word for it. Two of our members—Zac and Anna—gave us their perspective on Sunday morning. You can read their testimonies below

Anna:

I joined the Bible Reading Challenge partly from a hunger to read more Scripture, and partly because of the format. The plan covers the entire Bible in just 9 months and the emphasis is to read what is assigned for that date and not worry about the days that you missed.

While it is a fast pace, the simplicity of the focus—just taking in Scripture (whether via reading or audio)—has been a tremendously rich experience for me. Historically, I have relied on journaling through Scripture verses, but with this plan, you don’t have time to journal for 20 minutes on every verse.

The approach of reading large portions every day is an act of faith towards God. Rather than trusting my abilities in meditation and study, I am choosing to trust that God is true to his promise that his Word is living and active. 

I have seen Scripture shape me as weeks have passed, impacting my thoughts and highlighting the character of God, the trustworthiness of his promises, and the glory of his plan of salvation. Reading Scripture at this pace has helped me keep moving through difficult books and has helped me see themes and make connections all over the Bible.

In Jeremiah, I saw how tremendously longsuffering God is towards his people and the affection of his heart towards wayward sinners.

In Daniel, I saw how God comforts Daniel as he responds in fear to terrifying visions of the world’s opposition to the Lord by the Lord’s assurances to him that he is greatly loved.

Job showed me how to wrestle with blameless, undeserved suffering and pointed me towards the ultimate Blameless Sufferer, Jesus.

Ephesians opened my eyes to the Lord’s salvation and heart and promises for us being an overflow of abundance and that where I fear God being stingy, he is lavish in his generosity.

I experienced this richness, despite missing many days. At the end of this challenge, I missed three months in their entirety, and a few others were spotty. So. Did I fail the challenge? Absolutely not!! Even with missing three whole months, I read and feasted on far more Scripture than I ever would have without participating! 

I am hungrier for the Lord and his word than I was at the outset. I am more mindful of the Lord’s work. I have more hope in the return of Jesus and am more grounded in trust of his faithfulness to me. 

In addition, it has been a delight to be reading the same passages as other people in the church, and it has increased my motivation with excitement to talk about how the LORD is using his word in our lives.

So. I cannot highlight enough the richness and fruitfulness of this challenge and want to urge you to join us for the next one. Thank you.

Zac:

I signed up for the Bible Reading Challenge because I found past reading challenges to be really fruitful, and I hadn’t read through the entire Bible for a number of years. I also find that the structure and accountability help me to be more consistent with my Bible reading than I am when reading by myself. 

While I will admit I had trouble keeping up with the reading and have missed some days and some chapters, the Holy Spirit was there to meet me when I did read. When I submit my heart to the reading of God’s Word, the Spirit gives me something to hold on to regarding the character of God and the hope we have in Him. The Spirit sometimes illuminates passages such that I feel I had never read them before. I sense that God is conversing with me and has new things to say. For example, we were reading Ezekiel last month, which I hadn’t read in many years. In the opening chapter, Ezekiel describes seeing a vision in heaven of the likeness of a throne with a likeness of a human appearance seated upon it. One of the guys pointed out that this could be a Christophany, that is a non-physical appearance of Christ in his pre-incarnate glory. For me reading that chapter was like getting a new glimpse of our Lord that I hadn’t picked up on before.

And that example alludes to one of the pleasures of going through this reading plan: we were doing it together. Many of the other men participating in the challenge were using the Bible App to share what we learned each day. The Holy Spirit was also speaking in and through these men to my encouragement and benefit.

I would encourage the members of the church to also consider joining future group reading plans so that you might also receive the same blessings and encouragements I received.