Study the Bible
“The Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” Joshua 1:8
Every year of high school we were given a reading list over the summer. It included a list of books that we were supposed to read during the summer and then either write a report or answer questions. Before the summer started I would get my list of books and then go to the bookstore to purchase the books.
I had every intention of reading all the books and completing the reports. Most summers I would start off reading the shortest book; in my head I thought if I could complete the shortest book first it would give me motivation to continue with the other books. Now I am sure you all are more studious than me, but I would get about half way through the book and then find other activities to fill my time with.
And then I would get to camp and I really put off the reading because I wanted to spend time enjoying all that camp has to offer. Also I knew there was time to read during rest hour, but I would spend my time writing letters or sleeping. I thought in college I would not run into the same problem of summer reading assignments, but I was mistaken. Before even starting my first semester I received my summer reading assignment and I was in shock. Looking at the book I was supposed to read I began to understand why I never completed any of the summer reading books in high school: I never really understood why I was reading the books. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading, but not when assigned to read.
Sometimes I think we can run into this same problem when we take a look at the Bible. There are plans to “read the bible in a year” but really what are we supposed to do with this reading? This verse in Joshua sheds some light, and similar to those high school summer reading assignments, helps guide us in our reading of the Bible.
The Bible gives us direction for how we should live our lives. Now I can say this, but you may ask why should we read the Bible? This is what I struggled with for the summer reading, but one of my friends described the importance of reading the Bible this way: we must READ it to KNOW it, so that we can KNOW it to FOLLOW it, that we may FOLLOW it to LIVE it. So I encourage you to open up your Bible today!