After finishing the dishes, I walked down the hall to my room. Drowsily I got ready for bed, climbed up the ladder to the top bunk, reached for my Bible, flipped to the bookmark, and started reading. “Ten chapters”, I thought, “I’m going to be here for a while.” There was a book that I had started within reach, taunting me. “Take a break”, it seemed to say, “just read me for a little bit, you know you want to.” It took all my self control to stare back at my bible and continue reading.
It was somewhere in the middle of April when I started to read my bible from cover to cover in six months. (Ok, I had already read Genesis, but mostly cover to cover.) God had been convicting me of my obsession with books. I would often spend hours on end perched on my bed reading, or “slurping” books as my brother calls it. I would forget about my bible, and when I did read it, it was only a few chapters, then I would go back to my book. I realized that reading books had become an idol to me. The books weren’t bad, on the contrary, they were God honoring books! But they had become an idol.
So I decided to back off of the books. Instead I would try to read all the way through my bible in six months. That would keep me busy! One night I actually went through the entire bible, adding up all the chapters. Did you know that there are 1,189 chapters in the bible? I didn’t! Anyway, I figured out that I could read ten chapters a day, five days a week, and finish in about six months.
So after many weeks of struggling, I finally finished on August 20, 2016. Too many things to count had clicked, far more than the first time I read through. I understood the overall scheme of the bible better, and I found some things I didn’t know were there before. I had been able to read other books also, once I got the hang of reading a chunk of the bible first.
Then God told me to lead a group doing the same thing I had done. It’s called Project N8. We are going to struggle through together, and rejoice together when things click. Will you join us? God did big things in me, He will do the same for you if you step out in faith.
Thanks so much for your leadership, Courtney. I’m thankful our kind King tasked you to remind us of the importance of reading His Word. It’s encouraging to see how He uses rescued sinners.