As we enter 2025, we embark on a journey through the Bible. What we start, we will complete. The movement toward God’s Word will change your life, and the experience will be unlike anything you’ve ever had.
By now, you should have purchased Inside Story, 52 Weeks in the Word by TonyaAnn. The translation is up to you, but it is essential to stay with that translation unless you are adventurous and prefer to read it twice daily in two different translations.
Leading
We will let TonyaAnn lead us to reading the Bible by genre.
- Gospels
- Law
- History
- Poetry/Law
- Wisdom
- Prophecy
- Letters
TonyaAnn will encourage us to learn, read, consider, and respond. Make sure you have a notebook or journal for your reflections. The questions at the end of the week are specific and not generic.
Learn
When we approach Scripture, we need to take our time to discover who God is and allow Him to reveal His character, ways, and will. Learn the truth as the Holy Spirit enlightens the chapters, paragraphs, and words.
The words we speak reveal the condition of our hearts. If this is true, how much more does God reveal the condition of His heart to us? Because the Word powerfully penetrates soul and spirit, it transforms, informs, and conforms us to His Word, revealing our condition.
We learn as the Holy Spirit leads because He discerns the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. The lessons He teaches are “spot on.”
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Heb 4:12-13 ESV.
Read
We are a treasured and blessed people who love and fear the Lord. His voice reveals what we once could not see. He reveals the truth and graciously gives us the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding we need to live with Him daily: step-by-step, hour-by-hour, and day-by-day.
He sends His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly… He sends His word… He has revealed His word… His laws and decrees… He has done this…. Ps 127:15, 18a, 19a, & 20a ESV.
The Holy Spirit teaches and illuminates the truth as we read sacred Scripture.
There’s a threefold definition of “Inspired Scripture.”
- Revelation: It’s an act of God to communicate Himself and His will to you. (See Amos 3:7, Micah 4:2, & Heb 1:1-2.)
- Inspiration: The Holy Spirit influenced the minds of men to write Scripture. He rendered them agents of God for the faultless communication of that revelation. God breathes out all Scripture and watches over it to keep it. (See II Tim 3:16-17 & II Pet 1:21.)
- Illumination or Enlightenment: This is the divine quickening of the human mind, allowing it to be understood as the truth is revealed and communicated. (See John 14:26, John 16:13 & I Cor 2:12-14.)
Reading God’s word is like having a conversation with God. You read it prayerfully, and the Holy Spirit responds as you read. The illumination by the Holy Spirit is the only way we can genuinely and adequately understand Scripture. As you read it, your heart will burn within you.
They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us on the road while He opened us the Scripture?” Luke 24:32 ESV.
Consider
The New Testament often comments on the Old Testament, explaining how God fulfilled his promises for the Messiah. Books such as Matthew, Romans, and Hebrews contain prophecies from the Old Testament, and they show how the Son of God fulfilled them.
The Old Testament spoke of the coming Christ; the new reveals how it happened.
A prayerful approach to Scripture satisfies a sincere desire to know God intimately. Those who search Scripture for fanciful meaning will never discover the truth hidden to be revealed to the faithful reader.
Those who trust in the Holy Spirit’s illumination understand the Word’s plain meaning. God intended for us to understand. Do not let the fact that you don’t understand some parts frustrate or concern you. We are mere creatures with finite minds, so the Lord must show us the truth in treasured, measured bites. There is only so much we can handle on any given day.
The Lord has an eternal lifetime to teach us what we need to know.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecc 3:11 CSB.
Respond
As we approach God’s word reverently daily, He will do something only He can do. He will open your eyes to see, ears to hear, and make your soul receptive.
The authors wrote the original manuscripts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. This does not hinder the genuine seeker from receiving and responding to God’s truth. The Holy Spirit, who led the Scripture writers to write the Holy Bible, is present as you read it.
The Spirit will lead the Spirit-led believer.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26 ESV.
It is okay to respond with questions of your own. The Lord doesn’t take offense to questions and will give you the answer in His time and place. Please write your thoughts as you meditate and learn, as you’ve never understood them.
In Conclusion
As we journey 52 weeks in the Word, I will continue writing articles and encouraging you weekly. God will speak to you through His word, which He inspired, wrote, inscribed, translated, sealed in a book, and teaches through the Holy Spirit.
God intends to reveal His heart, ways, thoughts, and so much more to you. The Bible is the word of the Eternal and the way to gain the more profound things of God.
The most important thing we will discover this year is that God is involved in the process of revelation, and He wants to reveal hidden and wonderful things you do not know.
Are you ready for an adventure of a lifetime?
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah… Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it — the LORD is His name: “Call to Me, and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jer 33:1-3 ESV.
May the Lord bless and keep you.
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