Father, tonight I just need to fall back into your embrace. Hold me close. Nothing is wrong. I am just weary and need to feel your heartbeat in my ear as I am held against Your chest. I am weak…You are strong. May my strength be renewed in my time with You. Amen.
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A few years back, over a five-year period, I purposed to immerse myself in Scripture. I read through the Old Testament one full time through and then about halfway through again. I was able to read through the New Testament three times in the same time period.
This was in the middle of my time at Kohl’s, so I had about a forty-minute drive each way. I purchased the Bible on CD and faithfully listened in my truck. So as not to be fiddling with changing a CD while driving. I strove to listen to each disc two times through. All together I listened to the Old Testament ten times and the New Testament eleven times in that same five-year period.
I want to stress that this is not a “look at what I did” moment. I felt it was important, as one who placed great importance on the Word of God, to know the Word of God. This approach benefited me greatly in that it gave me a wonderful big-picture perspective. There are so many Old Testament references in the New Testament and going through it all the way I did enable me to see a lot of that. Also, I was amazed at how many hymns were brought to mind going through Scripture, as well. Much of hymnody is great theology, too!
As I said, that approach benefited me greatly but it had more of a wide impact if you will. I’ve changed how I do things now and honestly, I have not read or listened through very much in the last six years. But where before I focused on the wide, now I am concentrating on the deep.
I really feel like my wide method lead me to my heart’s desire to draw closer to Christ and to really buckle down in my commitment to Him. I stopped keeping records of what I read and listened to at the end of 2013. By December of 2014, I had begun to journal. I wrote an opening prayer to my Father and then after reading a short passage of Scripture, I would write what I felt He was saying to me through that passage. I usually then tried to have an extended time of prayer.
I picked up where I had been reading my Bible – at the beginning of 2nd Corinthians – and…just wrote. I poured out my heart to the One who knew me best. It was a wonderful time of getting to know my Father and I have not turned back!
The blog you are reading? It is what it is because of that period in my life. (I began posting my journaling in June of 2015.) Not much has changed. I am still growing. I am still learning. And I am still amazed at the wonderful Father that I serve and love.
All that I have just written really wasn’t where I had planned on going when I sat down this evening but the Lord has answered my prayer and renewed my strength. I have written what I feel brings glory to Him. May you be inspired to do the same. Amen.
Dec 5th, 2019, Thurs, 6:51 pm
