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Welcome to the Thankful Homemaker podcast, a podcast to be an encouragement
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and blessing to each other in the role God has called us to as women.
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I'm so thankful you've stopped by, so grab yourself a coffee or tea and sit
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with me a bit as we talk about how God's Word impacts every area of our lives as Christian women.
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Hello, friend. I'm Marci Farrell from Thankful Homemaker, and I'm so glad to be with you today.
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We're talking about Bible reading today and specifically what to do when you've
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gotten a little off track or the plan you've been using just isn't working for you anymore.
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So this is something I've been working through myself recently,
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so I thought I'd share a little of what I've been doing and hopefully encourage
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you if you found yourself in the same place.
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So maybe your summer, like my summer, threw your normal routines off of it,
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or life has just been full and you've realized you haven't been spending as
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much time in God's Word as you'd like.
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So I'm raising my hand here with you because it's where I found myself recently.
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I had been working through a Bible reading plan, but somewhere along the way,
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it just became too much for me. I had gotten pretty far behind,
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and I'm not one to try to catch up when that happens. I usually just pick up where I left off.
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But this time, even doing that felt overwhelming to me, and I realized I needed
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to simplify my reading plan for this season. So this fall, I'm now reading through
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the New Testament along with the Psalms and Proverbs as I can work them in.
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And I've also been camping in Ephesians for quite a while now to study it a
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little more deeply. That's taking me some time, too.
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I used, it's a great site, it's called the Bible Reading Plan Generator to put
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together a plan that feels much more doable for me right now.
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I'll put the link to it in the show notes if you'd like to check it out,
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but you can kind of create your own customized plan by just checking some boxes
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on it, and it kind of sets it all up for you. So,
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My friend, maybe you're here because maybe you need a reset too,
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because sometimes the plan that worked for us in one season
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just isn't working in another.
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And that doesn't mean that we give up being in the Word at all.
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Maybe it simply means we need to adjust the plan.
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The plan is there to help us get into God's Word, not to become another burden that we're carrying.
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And sometimes we can make getting back into the Word more complicated than it needs to be.
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We think we need to catch up on everything we missed, find a new study,
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buy a new journal, wait until Monday morning to start fresh.
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But we don't. We can just open our Bibles today and begin. We can keep it simple, right?
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And I do like to keep my Bible reading pretty simple. Pick a time,
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pick a place, pick a plan.
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It doesn't have to be in the morning, although you all have been here long enough
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to know I personally love starting my day with the Lord before everything else starts pressing in.
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Maybe your time is during the kids' nap time or over your lunch break,
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or maybe it's even after everyone goes to bed.
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And you don't need hours, right? Some days it may be a chapter or a few verses or a psalm.
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Other days you may have the gift of a longer stretch in the Word.
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The point here isn't to have this perfect Bible reading routine.
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It's to be in God's Word. We don't read our Bibles to earn God's favor or simply
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to check something off our list. We read because we're his children and we want to know our father.
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We need his truth to shape our thinking. We need it to convict us of sin,
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to strengthen our faith, and we need it to help us see our lives rightly.
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Jesus prayed, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth in John 17, 17.
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God uses his Word to make us more like Christ. We need it.
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So I just always say, just begin. If you're not sure where to begin.
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Choose one book of the Bible and read through it slowly. Really meditate on it, right?
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Philippians or James are great places to start.
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And as you read, just ask yourself some questions as you're reading.
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Like, what does this teach me about God? How, what does this show me about myself
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in relation to God? Or how can I apply what I've read to my life today now?
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Keep a notebook nearby. I think that helps to be able to jot some thoughts down
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and things as you're reading.
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But you don't need anything elaborate. If you've gotten behind on a reading
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plan, it's okay to adjust it or just start with the current day's reading.
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You don't have to go back and catch up on everything you missed because if you're
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regularly reading through the Bible, you're gonna come back around to those
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portions again. But the important thing is that we keep coming back to God's word.
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God's word is our daily bread. It's not a once a week feast.
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And as we spend time in his word, The Holy Spirit uses his truth to renew our minds.
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He uses it to expose our sin and conform us more and more into the image of
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Christ. So if you're raising your hand here with me today, I love that I'm like
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on a podcast and I'm raising my hand, but I'm raising my hand.
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Let's not wait until we have the perfect plan or the perfect morning.
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Let's just open our Bibles and begin again.
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And my friend, if you have a copy of my book, Homemaking Matters,
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chapter nine is all about our daily devotion and spiritual growth.
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So you'll find more encouragement there on Bible reading and prayer and scripture
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memory and some simple ways we can make time with the Lord a priority.
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This whole post is over at my home on the web at thankfulhomemaker.com.
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So all the show notes or links, everything's there.
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And I'm just grateful. Thank you for joining me. I'm always thankful when we
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can get even just a few moments together, which is what this one was today.
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But my friend, let's always remember, Jesus truly is enough always.
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I pray you have a very blessed week.