Can I tell you the very first quiet time tool that I pull out of my arsenal every single morning? It’s not Blue Letter Bible or any of those necessary digging-deeper tools. It’s a basic Bible reading plan, and it’s one of the most strategic (and most often overlooked) tool in my entire Scripture-study arsenal.
Reading plans have exploded in popularity in recent years thanks to the gift of the YouVersion app (Have you done mine yet?) But when I say “reading plan,” I don’t mean those kinds of Bible reading plans. A YouVersion reading plan is a daily portion of Scripture paired with author text (also called a devotional).
The Bible reading plan I’m talking about is a schedule of Scripture-only passages. In other words, it’s a morning strategy. Your reading plan is a critically strategic part of your quiet time because, in order to develop a morning reading habit, you need to have a plan in place. It eliminates the debilitating question, “What do I read today?”
Devotionals are great, but it’s very easy to become dependent upon them because they are made up of three key elements:
1. The topic
2. Verse(s) built around the topic.
3. The author’s essay on the topic.
If you aren’t careful, you will train your brain to look for to the pre-written answers before you stop to listen for God’s voice speaking into your reading.
The Bible reading plan that I’m talking about is made up of just one thing: that day’s Scripture section. But its not just a list of passages to read or a checklist to mark off.
The Bible Reading Plan
A devotional is helpful. A reading plan is crucial.
One does all of the work for you. The other forces you to push your sleeves up and dig in for yourself, asking God to teach you as you go. Every one of those daily passages in the kind of reading plan that I’m talking about serve as a stepping stone into the general vicinity of your morning reading. And every time your spirit pulls at a word, or your eyes flit to a cross-reference?
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That’s when the Holy Spirit is tailoring the reading plan to you and your right-now.
Here’s what I mean by that:
Recently, as I had my hands in our backyard dirt, plucking out errant weeds and straightening overgrown grass edges, I kept repeating the same four words, “God, give me rest.”
The next morning, I turned to my trusty reading plan. It was August 7, so I began to read in Jeremiah 1. It didn’t take long before my spirit slowed. The words of Jeremiah 1:5 captivated me. I read them slowly, glanced at the cross-reference in the margin, and flipped over to it.
I read Exodus 33:12 (where that cross-reference pointed me), then kept reading a little more, lingering in the story. That’s when my jaw dropped open because, just the day before, I asked God repeatedly to give me rest. And the very next morning, not even 24 hours later? God continued the conversation.
“My Presence will go with you,” God told Moses two verses later, in Exodus 33:14, “and I will give you rest.”
Believe me when I tell you, this happens all the time. Of course, not every day will be like that. But a lot of them will, as long as you are sensitive to those kinds of spirit-slowing moments.
Your curiosity is a powerful tool that God can and will use to pull you to the words He wants you to see that day, if you lean into it. So, friend, lean in.
P.S. I have my favorite Bible reading plan ready to drop into you inbox in both dated and undated formats! Just hit this link to grab yours and get to strategizing your morning!
