Thankfulness: January 3

I've decided that in 2011 I'm going to read through the Bible. I've never committed to reading through the Bible in a year before. Honestly...I never really liked the idea. Now don't get me wrong- I love the idea of committing to reading the entire Bible. It is, after all, our Sword against the Evil One, our daily bread, our comfort, our instruction manual for living the life God has given each of us. The study of the Word should absolutely should be a part of our every day life. But for whatever reason, I didn't like the idea of forcing myself to read chunks of Scripture at a time just to say I read through the Bible in one year. I'd rather study portions at a time and really dig the meat out of each section...I'd rather go to a chapter, a verse, a whole book, that pertains to the issue I'm facing at that moment.

So, as I considered the possibility of reading through the Bible in one year, I did it with all these thoughts in the back of my mind. And I decided to make a yearly commitment that so many "Good Christians" proudly proclaim they do every year...but with a twist.

I am going to read through my new chronological Bible in one year. This idea holds a lot of appeal for me, because I've never studied the Bible in chronological order. I think- no, I know- I'm going to learn a lot this year from my reading, which will actually be studying. I'm excited about this fresh take on a tired tradition that so often is just another notch on an established Christian's belt. (Boy that sounds cynical. And I guess it is. But I just have never heard someone say "ya know, I committed to reading through the Bible in a year, and I did it...and I actually enjoyed it! and learned from it!" it always seems people say "yeah, I said I'd read through the Bible in a year, but boy did I get bogged down in the geneologies, and gave up". Maybe if I heard just one person say that they enjoyed what they committed to doing, then I'd have a different view of this).

So what does this have to do with being thankful, you ask? I'm thankful today that I have so much freedom in my choice of how to study God's Word. And that no matter what course of study is pursued, I am promised that His Word will not return to Him empty.