For each of the last twelve years, I have read the Bible cover-to-cover. My name is Joy Miller and this is my story…
In 2008, my family gave me a brand new study Bible for Mother’s Day. I thought I was pretty consistent at reading Scripture until I found a statement in the intro material of that new Bible. Here’s a paraphrase of what it said:
Christians should be reading the Old Testament once a year and the New Testament several times through.
What? How does that happen? I mean I had been getting up early before work to read my Bible or do a devotion for years, but I wasn’t systematic about it and it never occurred to me that I should be. And he was saying I should read the whole Bible every single year? Yikes!
But, regardless of the doubt I felt, I determined that, come January 1, 2009, I would choose a plan and read the whole Bible cover to cover in a year. And the habit stuck. What started with my obsession to attain the goal, morphed into discipline, habit, joy, and – best of all – knowing God better.
And isn’t that the true objective?