Bible Reading: 2025 and On To 2026

This morning I finished up my Bible reading plan for 2025. That completes 33 times through the Old Testament and 66 times through the New Testament and the Psalms.

I sort of feel that old man thing going on where I’ve found my one or two things that I repeat and harp on happening, and Bible reading is one of them. I’ve found a way to weave that into sermon applications more and more. Is it because I’m just getting old and certain things are on repeat? Maybe.

But more than likely it is because consistent and planned Bible reading that gets me through the whole of the Bible has been THE key piece of my personal discipleship.

Why has it been THe key piece?

The Bible has increasingly become the lens by which I see everything and thus evaluate everything. The Bible is progressively sanctifying me. It gets after something new and unique in my life every year.

What is the fruit of the Bible increasingly becoming my lens to see and evaluate everything in 2025?

1. I have seen the integration of the nature of man clearer in the Bible this year than I have ever before, and thus I’ve taken my mental, emotional, and physical health more seriously.

The result?  I’ve lost 20 pounds and have set as my goal my “marrying” weight. I’ve been up and down as I’ve wrestled to not use food to regulate my emotions from the challenges we’ve faced this year, and I’ve been able to get that under control with accountability and the Spirit’s enablement.

When I broke my back in 2007, I never quite recovered from the bad eating habits I established during the recovery time. I did pick back up the physical activity, but my eating habits became a means to medicate other mental and emotional needs, and thus I abused my body and soul with poor eating habits.

What I’ve seen this year in God’s word is that the mental, emotional, and physical parts of my being are all integrated and until my passing and the resurrection I have a responsibility to treat my being in a healthy, good, holy, and integrated way. That has led to me journeying back to 2007 health.

I’m not there yet, and I have other mental, emotional, and physical challenges to get after, but I will overcome them and it has been God’s word as the lens to help me see the integrated nature of the human that set me on this path.

2. I have been able to develop mental and emotional resilience as I’ve seen God’s emphasis on this in the Psalms through his call to wait on him.

Now, that’s a hefty sentence. It deserves more than I’m willing to cast out for everyone to read right now. But suffice it to say that our mental and emotional well-being is rooted in the self-controlled discipline of managing thoughts at the granular level and taking them captive to make them obey Christ, then using those Christ transformed thoughts to turn down certain emotions and turn up others, and then being able to wait on the Lord rather than foolishly plowing into self-rescue fueled by an angry resolve.

God’s word gives us insights that send us on Proverbs 25:2 expeditions of God’s creation and in those expeditions, we discover God’s concealed glories that help us understand humans and how to maximize living like image-bearing kings and queens of creation under the sovereign rule of Jesus.

3. I have seen in God’s word that truth, reality as God sees it, is prophetically needed in the public square in every square inch of creation.

From the home to the government to business to every square inch of creation, the forces of evil in the heavenly places have influence in decisions that are made, and far too many of us Christians are ignorant, silent, or on the sidelines of this conflict.

God has given his people a place to influence outcomes for the benefit of people everywhere, beginning in our homes and spreading to all creation.

Our homes, the church, and the families of the church are God’s means of establishing his kingdom on earth as in heaven.

If we stay on the sidelines of this warfare, it is to our shame.

God’s word tells us what reality is, and we have a responsibility to do more than say it, but to implement that reality in practical ways that grow wellness for humans and push back darkness.

How will God’s word inform how our families engage publicly in 2026?

Good question.

God’s word will tell us.

So, if you have not read your Bible through or are just beginning or have been doing it for a few years, there is no better time than the present to get started.

I’m putting my little plan on this post. It starts over tomorrow. You will read an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, and a New Testament passage each day. It takes 15-20 minutes.

Get some!!!