What I Learned from Reading the Whole Bible in a Month

Reading the whole Bible in 28 days turned out to be a lot more doable than I realized and incredibly rewarding.  When I started this experiment I had two goals:

1. That my focus would be first and foremost on God each and every day and that spending a significant amount of time reading Scripture would re-awaken my desire to truly know Jesus.
2. That I would have a new understanding and perspective of Scripture by reading through the entire Bible in a relatively short period of time.

These goals were definitely met.

First, I spent between 1 and 2 hours each day either reading the Bible or listening to the audio version of the Bible, often I did both. Since I rarely have that amount of time available all at once I was immersed in the Bible through-out the day whenever I had the chance. This kept God and His Scripture top of mind for me in a way that it never has been before. It did awake in me a desire to spend time in God’s Word daily and to dig in deeper.

Second, my perspective of God and Scripture has changed. While there are small inconsistencies in stories and parts in the Bible that still confuse me, I overwhelmingly have the impression that God is consistent.

Previously I had a difficult time reconciling the image of God that I had from the Old Testament with the image of God (and the person of Jesus) in the New Testament. I saw the God of the Old Testament as demanding, harsh, and righteous. I saw Jesus as humble, loving, and subversive.

Now I see that God has always loved us more than we deserve and He desires that we trust Him with our entire lives. The core problem with humanity is that we want to be in control of our own lives. This is my core problem. Whether we’re “good” or “bad” we’re trying to be in control. This is so ingrained in our being and in our culture that it seems like it’s a healthy and good thing to direct your own life. One of the main messages of Scripture is that this is a lie. When we think we’re in control and free we are actually enslaved to sin. 

The reality of our situation is that God is in control. Thanks be to God that He is also loving and merciful and trustworthy! I am overwhelmed with the glimpse of God that I’ve received from reading the Scripture this month.

God has always asked us to give Him our entire lives and nothing less. And God has always been merciful and loving and willing to forgive us whenever we repent and turn to Him. I pray that these new eyes will never leave me and that I can willingly rest my life in His hands.