Tis the season of New Year’s resolutions. Funny thing: As I’ve listened to TV and radio personalities share their New Year’s resolutions, I’ve been hearing, along with the usuals such as better fitness, better nutrition, getting up earlier, resolutions like this: “I want to not only read the Bible through, I want to ingest it and explore it, to go deeper into the Bible’s meaning.” This has been more than Christian personalities, but across the programming spectrum.
Finally.
For most of my ministry life I’ve been making the point that God never actually said “read my Word.” Reading is implied, a given. Words that God uses to encourage interaction with His Word pack a lot more punch: meditate on, heed, keep, understand, talk about, do, obey. In fact, the verse that most closely tells us to “read” Scripture is Revelation 1:3 where we are told to not only read it, but to read it aloud, to hear it, and to take it to heart. This is not a casual approach to God’s Word.
To be sure, I am all for Bible reading plans. They help us be intentional with God’s Word. But if my observation regarding New Year’s resolutions is any indicator of a trend, our culture is beginning to sense the craving it has always had but didn’t know it.
I’ve been an advocate for deeper Bible engagement when, realizing that I get bored with reading, I began to do more with Scripture than simply read it. Using time-tested inductive Bible study tools, I began to explore, engage, and interact with Scripture in profoundly deeper ways. Epiphanies abounded. Conviction abounded. And most curiously, that big book (clocking in just a bit bigger than the novel Les Misérables) became smaller.
I’ve sensed that so many of us have been locked in to “reading” the Bible, unaware that there is a deeper engagement waiting for us: an engagement that brings great blessing to our hearts and minds, an engagement that brings coveted intimacy with Jesus, an engagement that creates pliability in in being conformed to the image of Jesus.
As you launch into 2024, consider adding a layer of depth to your Bible interaction. Make 2024 the year you move from Bible reading to Bible engagement. Let yourself get into God’s Word, and let God’s Word get into you. Below is an invitation to two tools (FREE!) that will help you add a layer of engagement to your Bible experience in 2024.
Barry Shafer | Founder/Director, InWord Resources
Barry Shafer