I am happy to share I have been able to keep up my bible reading twice a day (before bed and first thing when I wake up). I'm so grateful for my loving parents who gave me a Holman Christian Standard Bible for Christmas! I love that bible. It is easy to read and understand, plus it has a built in commentary to help me understand the culture, traditions, and use of the language from the author's time. I don't always agree with the commentary author's interpretations of the bible, but many times their insight brings so much more depth to my understanding of God's word!
I'm still reading through Psalms in the mornings. It is a more upbeat book of the bible and when I am praising God, it is so much easier to start my day out right! As a matter of fact, the other day I was having a dull day at work plugging along through my tedious paperwork. I have several youtube playlists of Christian music, but when I started listening to the Worship music, even without me singing along, I could just feel my office fill with the presence of the Holy Spirit! It really uplifted my mood and changed my attitude!
At night I have made it through Proverbs and Song of Solomon, and now I am going through Isaiah. Honestly, Isaiah is a hard read for me. It is full of prophecy. Some prophecies were already fulfilled, some are double prophecies (fulfilled at one time and to be fulfilled again). I don't always understand the prophecies, the commentary helps, but doesn't go into all the eschatology (study of end times) of it either. So as I'm reading, I am praying for God to teach me and give me insight to what he wants me to learn. Some passages touch me and others I take in for God to use at a later date in my life.
Proverbs 2:1-5 (actually the whole chapter is awesome if you want to read it) "My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."
I still feel a lack of communication with the Lord despite my time in the Word. I feel a desire, a need to talk with God more...more of what a relationship entails. To have a deeper more meaningful prayer life. That's a little more challenging and I know Satan likes to make me think that God's too far away or not listening, but I KNOW better and have to remind myself of God's promises to me:
Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
1 John 5:14 "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."
1 Corinthians 2:9-13 "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."
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