As we quickly approach the end of one season and the beginning of the next, we can find ourselves slightly emaciated due to our lack of sustenance over the past few months. And no, I’m not talking about our caloric deficit. We can somehow manage to find enough substance for our body all the while neglecting true and lasting substance for our soul. In light of this in my own life, I want to encourage you to feast with me on the whole counsel of God just in case you’ve gotten a little out of the routine this summer.
September 5 marks the beginning of the To the Word Bible reading plan. This plan covers the entire Bible in a nine-month period with readings six days a week (Sundays off) and some catch-up days interspersed in-between. Though this plan is ambitious, it is not intended to be a burden. If you miss a day, so what? Just pick up with the current day. If you can’t seem to make the time to read at home, download the app and listen to the reading during your commute. If you find it too challenging to read this on your own and something different with your family, then weave this into your time of family worship. Once you get started and the habit starts to from, you’ll start to wonder how you ever allowed yourself to get out of the habit.
In case you need some more encouragement, here’s a few verses from the Word to encourage you to be in the Word.
Psalm 119:11 - “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Psalm 119:172 – “My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 – “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 32:47 – “For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
Joshua 21:45 – “Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Proverbs 30:5 – “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”
Isaiah 40:8 – “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 – “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread and water to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Jeremiah 23:29 – “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”
Joel 2:11 – “The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”
Zechariah 4:6 – “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.’”
Matthew 13:23 – “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
John 8:31 – “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”
John 8:51 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
John 10:35 – “If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken.”
John 14:23-24 – “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”
John 17:17 – “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
Acts 6:7 – “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
Acts 12:24 – “But the word of God increased and multiplied.”
Acts 13:49 – “And the word of God was spreading throughout the whole region.”
Acts 19:20 – “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”
Acts 20:32 – “And now I commend to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Romans 10:17 – “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:18 – “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Philippians 2:16 – “Holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
1 Thessalonians 2:13 – “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”
2 Timothy 2:9 – “For which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!”
Titus 1:9 – “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”
Titus 2:3-5 – “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
James 1:18 – “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
James 1:21 – “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
James 1:23 – “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.”
1 Peter 1:23 – “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”
2 Peter 1:19 – “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”