Stratacipleship Grace: Read 1

In our world there are a million different diets. There are places that will help you diet. There are businesses set up to train you how to diet. There are supplement stores to help you start your diet with pills. There are gyms that help you stay active so you can make the most of your diet. There diets that cut out standard foods people eat to help the weight come off quicker. Diets are intended to help people lose weight. The term “diet” can also just refer to what you eat on a regular basis. When people talk about staying healthy, they talk about exercise and diet. Using diet in that sense is not some 6-week program with the intention of losing 10 pounds. Diet, in that sense, is your regular pattern of eating.

Read 1 can be similar to diets. As we come into faith we know we should pick up God’s Word and read it. There are so many different ways we can do that. We read it with short devotional books. We can just pick up the Bible and start reading. There are Christian books that use God’s Word in them. There are ways to listen to it on the radio, cd, or electronically. Some even say that Christian music is a form of reading God’s Word. Even though we have all these ways to read God’s Word, like diet plans, we never seem to arrive at where we want to be. There is always more dieting, and more reading, we could do.

Read 1 is about God’s grace in many ways. I have done a ton of reading plans in my life, like different diets, trying to get into God’s Word daily. I have had devotional books. I have read the Bible straight through following a daily schedule. I have read it chronologically. I have listened to sermons.  Yet humanly, I find myself in a constant struggle to stay on routine with reading God’s Word every day. One person said it is because there is an enemy, someone trying to push against us. That person is the devil. Read 1 is all about God’s grace because we need it.  We need His grace! We humanly fail at putting ourselves in God’s Word enough, and often break the patterns and habits we are trying to establish. We need God’s grace to remember that it is a life long challenge to Read 1 every day. That is why we start with one verse. Sure, we want everyone to read chapters, or books, or to take a good amount of time meditating on God’s Word, but it starts with reading one verse. When we do that, we see God’s grace in these words. God’s grace embraces and loves us, and we remember again why we want to Read 1, because through it we hear the hope of Jesus.

With my kids, I’m trying to help them build future habits of Read 1 by reading together with them from an age appropriate Bible every night. My prayer is that one day this will help them to Read 1 on their own. Yet, just like in my personal reading life, there are days when we get home too late or I’m too tired and we skip it. Human nature strikes again. I have to be reminded that I need God’s grace, and we begin the pattern of Read 1 again. This weekend we talk about this part of our discipleship model -- Read 1.