One of the things I love about my friend Don, who is not only our financial advisor but also a great spiritual advisor, is that he could be ordering a #5 from Chick-fil-A but somehow he’ll find a way to put a Biblical spin on it, and he’ll probably even draw you a picture to go along with it. He bases everything in his world around Jesus—I just want that so much.

I’ve always said that when you see someone who’s doing something better than you, you should pay attention. When I found out that Don had been going through a Bible reading plan for about 17 years, I took that to heart. He told me about this group he has established to read through the Bible in a year together and I immediately wanted to join. Now I’m in this group called The Men of God—a small group of baseball players that have chosen to go through God’s Word together and encourage each other to grow closer to Him.

Don has given us notebooks with a reading plan for each day, which includes passages from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and a Psalm or Proverb. At the end of the year, we will have all read through the entire Bible. I thought I was faithful in my reading of the Scripture, but now that I have a notebook and I’m able to see what I’m reading each day, documenting my thoughts and what God is revealing to me, I realize that I had a lot to learn.

It’s amazing what God has been revealing to me this year. If you don’t have any checks and balances, or any way of tracking what you are reading, it’s hard to tell how you might, or might not, be growing in your faith. Being a good self-evaluator is important in a lot of areas of life but it’s especially important in your relationship with God. It is a relationship; you have to pursue Him as He pursues you.

It would be easy to get discouraged during the times when I’ve missed a few days of the plan and to think, “Well I missed it this year, I’ll try again next year.” But then I look back through my notebook at the days that I’ve missed but then gotten back on track and I see all that we’ve learned and accomplished in the past months and I realize that it’s a learning curve. I’m reading so much more and growing so much more now than I ever have before because of that notebook and the men in my life that hold me accountable. As we send each other texts each day about the passages for that day’s reading, it’s keeping me interested, involved, and thirsting for the Word more.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” —Hebrews 4:12

When you read the Bible faithfully and routinely, you never fail to learn something new. You can read a story that you feel like you’ve heard twenty times but each time you open it, God allows you to see something in a way you never have before. This will never cease to amaze me.

One of my favorite things about the Bible is every word has a great lesson behind it. The Bible never stops teaching. Everything that Jesus did has a purpose and every word that God breathed has purpose; we get to continually discover what those purposes are through God’s Word.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” —2 Timothy 3:16-17

—Adam Wainwright

Adam Wainwright is a regular contributor to The Increase, providing monthly articles and opinions.

Check out Adam’s Increase profile here: http://theincrease.com/author/adamwainwright/   

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