At some point, your approach to life and in particular, your faith, must transcend acting a certain way out of guilt or approval of others or what you’ve always done or what you learned from your parents. Your faith must become your own. You must turn away from the alternative voices that try to claim your attention and steer your hearts affection. We so often look for a quick fix of encouragement or let someone else summarize passages of scripture to give us what they think we need for the day or week or month or year.
When you strip out all of the fanfare of church programs and doing service projects especially when it is done primarily out of guilt or obligation, you can get down to the essentials. The essentials of your faith are you and God and learning to love your closest neighbor(s) as yourself.
The first thing that matters is learning to turn your attention to the words of God to know who He is. God’s word is from God and about God. Therefore, turn your attention away from yourself and to God. You need the words of God to posture your heart toward who God is. Over time, this is what changes a heart and begins to cultivate a greater, deeper love for the things of God and for who He is.
I cannot think of a better way to do this than to read the whole Bible through, front to back. This will give you an appreciation for God’s pace. It is not a quick fix, it is a slow prod.
When I read through the whole Bible, I slowly commit myself to God’s ways walking painstakingly through sin’s entrance into the world and proof that it is a construct and consistent theme in the existence of all of us back to Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and then into a chosen people, Israel, through 40 years of wandering and woven into their existence. Wandering, waiting, disbelief, restoration (repeat). Reading from front to back breeds patience and longing for more of God.
I started this process years ago when I needed a reset in how I went about my Christianity. I was stuck in shame and guilt and habitually in a self-centered understanding of Christianity. I tried to resolve sin patterns by my own might. I felt like even after years of believing this faith and doing a lot of disciplined things my heart was still not postured toward God. It was postured toward my needs and wants.
Even when I committed to reading through the Bible I had a well meaning friend tell me I was doing it wrong. But I had come to the end of my own trying and desperately needed Jesus. I had remembered the way that I knew the depravity of my own sin and how good God is when I was reminded of His attributes and character. This is what I wanted from God.
This patient and painstaking longing for God can be restored through reading the whole Bible through from front to back. I had tried to read the Bible through before but would ultimately get confused somewhere in Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers and then quit. To counter this I created a guide with checkboxes that I could put in my Bible to keep myself on track.
In many ways we need to simplify our Bible study to this rote journey through the Bible. It is like my pastor says, ‘Water over rocks’ reading. It is so simple, it’s addicting. I often over complicate things and this simplified format makes it clear as mud. I look for things to surprise me or stand out and be engaging, and yet that is why we so often take for granted the good things in life. We are too impatient and we look for what we think we need.
We need more of God and less of us. Your faith starts and ends here.