5 Things I Learned From Reading the Bible Through in a Year

5 Things I Learned From Reading the Bible Through in a Year By Michael Davis via Christian News Journal

In 2019, I bought the CSB Day-by-Day Chronological Bible and attempted to begin reading it in late March, only to find myself lacking discipline, focus and good tactics.

At the end of 2019, I knew I needed to read the whole Bible in 2020 and resolved that I was going to stick with it — a decision that changed my life.

Through reading the whole Bible, I realized many things about it and about myself that I would not otherwise have seen.

If you’re thinking about reading the Bible in 2021, or if you’ve already started, here are five things I learned that might be an encouragement to you.

1. The Bible is long.

In college, I read “Les Miserables” and deemed it one of the greatest accomplishments of my life, but now I sit here having completed the world’s greatest masterpiece, and I found the length of it, spread out over 52 weeks, completely manageable.

For a society inundated with short, concise, dramatically flippant messages, reading through the Bible faithfully in a year takes discipline.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).

2. The Bible is one big story.

From creation to New Jerusalem, through the law, prophets, poetry, gospels and letters, there is one story: Christ Jesus and His mission to redeem creation.

Jesus was foreshadowed by Adam and Isaac and Boaz and Elijah, and each, while sinful, raised anticipation for the fully perfect Christ to come. While inside the covers you’ll find 66 books, they serve as one large picture of God’s redemption plan for mankind.

“Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being;’ the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45).