Resolution: Delight in God's Word

One of the more common New Year's resolutions for Christians is to read through the Bible in one year. Even though it is often on my resolution list, I have never accomplished this resolution. Rather than try harder this year, let me explain why I think this should be removed from the list of honorable resolutions. In short, this resolution makes reading God's word a chore instead of a delight (at least for me). Even if you've "conquered" this resolution, I hope you keep reading and learn from my journey.

Delight to Be Blessed

Resolutions are intended to help us be more "blessed" in the new year. You are blessed if you are physically or financially more healthy this year. You are blessed if you overcome a self-destructive habit. You are blessed if you check something off your bucket list. However, more significantly, God says you are blessed if you delight in the Bible.

Psalm 1 identifies the way to be blessed, a life-long resolution ... listing three areas to avoid (v. 1) and two action items (v. 2).

1 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;

2 

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and on his law he meditates day and night. 

Focusing on the action items for this resolution ... how can we 1) delight in the law of the Lord (God's word) and 2) meditate on it day and night?

Delight and Meditate

While a popular "Christian" resolution, God does not command us to read through the Bible in a year; however, He does command us to delight in His word and meditate on it. 

I don't know about you, but I'm a learner ... and I delight in learning new things. It may seem odd, but I enjoy researching as it provides an opportunity to learn something new. When I delight in a new learning, I also meditate on it, as it sticks in my mind, percolates there, and resurfaces at random times ... that is what it looks like for me to mentally delight in something. However, I do not delight in overwhelming chores, and that has been my problem with reading through the Bible in a year. 

So how do I delight in God's word?

1. Read the Bible: Logically, if we want to learn about something, we need to spend time with it. If we spend time with a loved one, learn deeply about that person, we delight in both the person and the process. For a book, we need to do the same ... spend time in it. Read the Bible ... that is the start (and really the end) of my resolution.
2. Learn from others: I have always taken notes while listening to a sermon. It helps me focus, but it fits with my  "learner" strength. I often hear a sermon that causes me to delight on a Bible passage, and that leads me to meditate on it for the rest of the day or even week.
3. Study the Bible: I delight when I uncover something new (to me) through Bible study. I enjoy reading a concordance, commentary, or Bible handbook for individual study or in preparation for an official Bible study, devotion, or chapel homily that I am leading. Like sermons, often these studies stick in my mind, causing me to meditate on it day and night.
4. Take Small Bites: I love expository preaching (and study), where someone explains a word, phrase, or verse in depth rather than more superficial understandings of a larger passages. I imagine it frustrates some to go slowly through a passage (taking an entire year to preach through a book of the Bible), but I delight in that form of preaching and study.  
5. Create a Habit: I struggle with spiritual disciplines or habits ... like reading the Bible every day, but that is exactly what God commands us to do with His word ... "meditate on it day and night" (Joshua 1:8). While the phrase "day and night" represents "at all times," it can also literally provide a rhythm for us. A good practice for us to follow is to begin and end the day with God's word. In practice, we delight in things that we think about when we rise in the morning and when we lay down in the evening. How convicting that is for me: I "meditate" about work, sports teams, family, social media posts, politics, and entertainment much more than on God's word.

My resolution for this year is to use the above ideas to delight and meditate on God's word. No, I will not read through the entire Bible this year, but I hope to create a habit each morning and evening of reading and reflecting on a few verses. With God's help, this practice will lead to delighting in God's word more and more this year.

Join me in delighting in God's word this year and be blessed!