Delighting in the whole counsel of God - Clay Shelor
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2 ESV)
for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:27 ESV)
Delight yourself in the LORD, (Psalm 37:4 ESV)
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)
“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Last year, a Christian brother and I started the same Bible reading plan so we could encourage each other and be learning from the same places in God’s Word. Recently he said in front of several friends from our community group, “Clay and I both read today…” I was thinking, “What did I read? What is he talking about?” While I had started a reading plan with Ron, I got distracted, did other things and forgot I was even “on a reading plan.” Is there hope for a disorganized mess like me? Or does discipleship only work for “on top of it” disciplined machines?
As we consider a new year, we often make goals for how we will eat, exercise, things we want to accomplish with work, etc. Why not consider how we can dig deeper into the richness of God next year?
As a disciple of Jesus, how do you deepen your knowledge and love for God? As we approach a new year, how do you want to grow in your delight in the Lord in the next year? Christians approach personal worship and discipleship under God’s Word in many ways that reflect the myriad of ways God has wired us to learn, think and live. Some believers use reading plans to read the Bible in a year. Others read slowly and think deeply on a few books of the Bible.
One year Bible reading plans have not been a big success for me. I often feel while reading unrelated passages and long portions that I do not understand what I am reading and am just checking a list, not meditating and delighting in my God. Yet I need direction to push me into the depths and riches of God that go beyond what I already think I know from my favorite portions of Scripture. I also want to always be in the Psalms which guide my prayer. Finally, I need help and grace for the messy slacker. What do you do if you “get behind?”
I found a two year reading plan by Stephen Witmer that takes you through the whole Bible in two years and has daily Psalms or Proverbs, and it has make up days for you other disorganized messes! In those two years, you would read through the entire Bible once, and Psalms and Proverbs four times. I love the constant presence of Psalms and Proverbs in this plan. Billy Graham said the Psalms taught him how to get along with God and the Proverbs how to get along with man. I need rescue with both too!
I am excited about reading all of God’s Word at a slower pace and thinking through, how do I see Jesus in all of Scripture while still getting steady doses of the Psalms to shape my prayer and the Proverbs to help me be less cloddy in how I live!
And what can you do if you “get behind?” Being on a reading schedule is not a command; it’s a personal goal. Since I’m reading with a friend, I just skipped ahead to the current date! I don’t advise trying to cram 20 chapters (that doesn’t work for me). Sometimes I do “catch up” by listening to the audio of those chapters as I spend time in the car. I have to constantly remind myself I am under grace, and the goal is delighting in God under the whole counsel of God, not checking lists.
In Bible reading, prayer, any other Christian discipline, you have to remember the good news of the gospel is not that you are a disciplined reader. The good news is that Jesus really did live out Psalm 1 and delighted in the law of the Lord day and night. He lived it out perfectly as my representative. He doesn’t love me less because I missed Kings and Chronicles. I’ll read those next time!
And why do we seek to be in the Word regularly as followers of Jesus? It’s not to make God like us more. The gospel loudly declares that God delights in us because of the obedience of Jesus counted to us by grace through faith. We don’t read the Bible to become the world’s best Bible nerds and to have the keenest insights with our Christian friends. No, we read to delight ourselves in God (Psalm 37). We prayerfully read that by the power of the Spirit, the “eyes of our hearts may be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:18).
So as you think through Bible reading for next year, how do you want to delight in God in his Word? However you approach God’s Word this year, may you drink deeply from the wells of salvation and know joy in his presence, love for God and love for your neighbor so that all the world may know that Jesus is Lord.
The two year plan I am reading is here:
https://media.thegospelcoalition.org/static-blogs/tgc/files/2010/12/TGC-Two-Year-Bible-Reading-Plan1.pdf
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/two-year-bible-reading-plan/
Other plans
If this plan doesn’t work for you now, there are numerous other Bible reading plans to help bring a plan and structure to your intake of God’s Word, some for reading the Bible in a year, some for reading the New Testament, some for reading the Psalms, the gospels in 30 days, etc for a year, for two years or for a month.
https://www.crossway.org/articles/download-a-free-bible-reading-plan-for-2017/
https://www.questionsgod.com/70-bible-reading-plans.htm