What was your take on Sunday's message, and Tim's four challenges to New Cov in 2017? I can tell you that, this time last year, one of the challenges would have filled me with a sense of guilt and frustration. Let me explain my reaction, and why I don't feel the same now about this particular challenge.
As a follower of Jesus, one of my least favorite questions to be asked has been, "What are you reading in your quiet times?" It brings to mind glaringly the discipline of Scripture reading. I have struggled with consistency in this discipline, sometimes going through periods of barely reading the Bible at all. Definitely not daily. I knew I was pushing aside something important. I just didn't know how to change my pattern.
This past Sunday, one of Tim's challenges was that we commit to daily time with Jesus in Bible reading. I've heard that challenge before, and in the past I've wilted inwardly, knowing I'm not doing it. This time was different, though, for two reasons: new perspective, and new patterns.
I took a sabbatical break in June. My family went on a road trip. We camped, we visited friends and some amazing places... we broke the usual pattern. The very first morning on the road, our family read a devotional together that reminded me that God loves me no matter what. Something about the simple words, and the first person voice (it was written as God speaking to us) broke through to me. In front of my family, I got weepy remembering God's incredible, unfailing, unchanging love for me and all the ways He moves and works in and around me constantly. He loves me even when I'm not reading the Bible every day.
Then I attended the Exchanged Life Ministries conference we hosted in August. That was a paradigm shift for me. I believed that my closeness to God depended on me. What I learned was my closeness to God was never the issue. The issue for a growing Christ-follower is to allow God's Spirit within you to lead, and to put to death selfishness. We are crucified with Christ: it is no longer us, but Christ living in us (Gal 2:20). This freedom—that God loves me no matter what, and that I can choose to follow the Spirit instead of the flesh—interrupted the mistaken thinking that my walk with Christ is all up to me. It's up to God working in me, and me choosing to let Him work.
Disciplines—time alone in Bible reading, tithing, corporate worship, prayer, service—are not means for salvation. The work of salvation is complete, finished when Jesus died on the cross. Instead, spiritual disciplines are part of our sanctification—a process for growing and knowing Christ more so that we become more like him.
These new perspectives on freedom in Christ led to new patterns. In July I started a year Bible reading plan, through the Bible app on my phone. The M'Cheyne Reading Plan reads through about 4 chapters per day. In a year, I'll have gone through the Old Testament once, the Psalms and New Testament twice. I'm a few days behind right now, but I've spent many more days reading God's word these past 6 months than not. And in the process God has changed my heart, opened my eyes to His work around me, and given me reason to praise Him! Plus, it has kept me grounded on these truths: God loves me no matter what, and I can choose to follow the Spirit instead of the flesh.
If you struggle in this area, I want to echo Tim and invite you to give one of the New Cov pastors a call. Any of us would be happy to talk with you about a Bible reading plan that fits you. I could go on and on about this, because I've seen how God is using this discipline to speak, to strengthen, and ultimately, to sanctify me. Hallelujah: praise be to God.
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