One of the goals for The Daily Reader is to create encouragement through being on the journey together. The Christian life was not designed for us to “go it alone” and that includes our reading through God’s Word. So I hope that testimonies on this site and specific encouragement from a friend will help keep us going. I won’t go into this now, but there are reasons that we struggle to be consistent in our Bible reading, just as we struggle in our prayer lives too. There is a spiritual warfare element involved, there is an internal struggle with the flesh, there is a world around us plotting to distract us from spending time with God. So we need to encourage one another.
John S shared this comment: “I have already been encouraged by calls for encouragement and by the opportunity to catch up by reading together and share thoughts as we go! (”Already!!” I hear you say. Yep.)”
I’ve heard of one pair of encouragement partners planning a curry together in the next few days! I’ve had a sneak preview of encouragement from two Oakhall folk that will appear on the February encouragement sheet – good stuff!
Amazingly, we also have friends joining in all over the world. Esther and a group of friends in Japan are following the plan, Esther’s looking for an attribute of God in each reading in order to worship Him. Mary (in England) emailed me to say, “I read through the Bible in seven months last year and thoroughly enjoyed it!” Oh, and Clive (from Suffolk but in Hawaii) is getting really carried away! He’s gone through three months Old Testament reading in five days and says, “This is the most encouraged I’ve felt in a long time. Really, worth the time.” No pressure here to go that fast, but don’t let us slow you down if you want to speed up!
One week into the year, any more testimonies to share as we journey together? How are you enjoying Matthew?
I am going to try to read through with my kids, we are a few days behind, but really enjoying it so far. I read to them before bed. Sometimes we talk about the story, sometimes I ask questions. I have been wanting to share more Bible reading for a long time with them. This just seemed right. I do have experience teaching the Bible, but I am taking a different approach here, by just letting the words themselves do the teaching, rather than offering lots of interpretation or commentaries. They are 9 and 12, both boys. They see things that I don’t. I am amazed by how many questions I keep coming up with, and how even though I’ve read everything before its fresh and different and new. I’ve probably read Genesis 40 or 50 times and yet I keep seeing things I’ve never noticed. Once again proof that God’s word is alive, and rather sharp! Te he.
Thanks for offering this resource.