“I did nothing. The Word did everything.” – Martin Luther

I just finished up my third year of going through the whole Bible using The Bible Recap reading plan. For years I had struggled to get through scripture. I could study passages & books. I’ve even written studies to share with others, but I always wanted the daily discipline of spending time in God’s Word just for me. Three years ago, one of my dearests and best, RL told me about completing this reading plan. I thought it might be the structure I needed, and I gave it a go.

Fast forward to today and I’m just so thankful she shared with me. She’s given me some good gifts over 40 years of friendship, but this is definitely the best gift she’s shared with me. It is my morning rhythm that sets the tone for my day. I listen to the reading while I’m starting my morning and I follow it with the podcast episode that gives some explanations and different schools of thought about cultural things or translations or history. The podcast episodes also share various ideas of how different groups of believers might read something differently than I read it. All those extras just help shape my heart more.

Every year I’ve gotten something different out of this time in scripture. I remember one of the years my big take away was that God’s love is personal for each of us and not only does he love me, but he likes me. That might not sound super profound to you but when you’ve left a very legalistic religious system the idea that God likes you is such a kind take away. The goodness and kindness of God were my gifts that year.  One year I was struck by the way that God works through all our mess ups. The Old Testament is full of people like me and my people doing things they don’t need to be doing, getting off course, thinking they are doing good and there’s God just letting them have free will but coming behind cleaning up the messes and making his plan work in the midst of their messes. As someone who makes messes and deals with LOTS of messes, this take away was a special gift to me.

This year I have found comfort from God’s Word. I’ve dealt with so very much suffering this year. Too many heavy things in my own life and too many heavy things being carried by people I love. I’m better dealing with my own suffering than I am watching others I love suffer. I’m a nurturer at heart so I’d rather carry it than have others around me carry hard stuff. I found comfort in the routine of starting my day with scripture. There were some hectic days where I fell behind and there were times that when it was so good I listened ahead and had to wait for the podcast to catch up with me. The bottom line is that He is good and his timing for my life is good.

Because I get busy and sometimes lose sight of the big picture, I didn’t pick up on the comfort theme until late in the year. It was a day that I had some particularly unkind communication directed toward me via email. I opened it, read it and discarded. Not my first rodeo with unkind communication in all my years of doing ministry. I opened my Bible Recap for the day and here God came with, II Corinthians 6:8 “We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us imposters…” I needed some validation and a don’t give up pat on the back from the Lord to keep going and there he was just being the God of all comfort.

This interaction with scripture got me to thinking back to the day before. It was the anniversary of the funeral of one of our dearest friends who had the kindest hearts. My last interaction with him had been such a sweet gift in retrospect. His last words to me the year before after I told him that I loved our walk together were, “Well, I didn’t love this walk. You walked me into the ground, but I love you. Tell Mike and the girls that I said hello, and I love them.”  Here I was on the anniversary of his funeral and my Bible Recap was II Corinthians 5:1-8. Let me summarize for you- it’s all about how these bodies are just earthly tents and when they are taken down, we will have a house (not a tent) in heaven. We live by believing and not seeing and long to be at home with the Lord. I knew Uncle John’s family was grieving and so was I. God’s Word was a sweet reminder that this world and this body are not our ultimate home.

This made me want to look back and reflect on some dates. II Timothy 2:13 “If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.” This comforted me on a day I was feeling weary and hoping that God is in control, I knew intellectually he was in control but emotionally, I was weary and not feeling it. When I was in the Psalms I was comforted with Psalm 121:3-8 “….the Lord will keep you from harm- he will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” I was in some situations then that had an element of danger to them. You know, when your ministry house used to be a crack house….. That scripture reminded me that his eye was on me.  There were other examples, but I think y’all are picking up on my big take away for 2023. God comforted me so many times this past year using his Word and his timing.

So, I’ll start going through the Bible again today. I have no idea what 2024 will bring. I know based on previous years, there will be some good stuff and some hard stuff and some happy stuff and some sad stuff. To end where I began with the quote from Martin Luther, “I did nothing. The Word did everything.” I’ll go through all the things. There won’t be anything I can do, but God’s Word will do everything I need.

If you want to join me in going through scripture using The Bible Recap, you’ve still got time to join me and the others in our group. It’s a private group on the YouVersion app. It’s a low pressure group that doesn’t require any homework. We’ve run into a little glitch adding people to our group, so send me your phone number and we’ll get you in there.

Be blessed in 2024, friends!