The One Year Bible New Testament for New Beginnings by DaySpring NLT, Filament Enabled - Book - Page 18
E N R ICH I NG YOU R R E A D I NG OF
The One Year Bible New Testament
he New Testament itself witnesses to the life-changing power of Scripture. Hebrews
4:12 tells us that “the word of God is alive and powerful” and that it “exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” And 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It
corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare
and equip his people to do every good work.” Time spent in Scripture, in a very real sense, is
time spent with God. There is no better place to hear from God than in its pages, and that’s
something we can do almost anywhere.
This is a special edition of the New Testament designed for daily reading that will help
you complete the entire New Testament in a year. This gives you a simple and defined pathway to follow. But once you’ve started down that pathway, how do you actually engage with
these living and powerful texts? The following offers you some general principles to keep in
mind as you read, along with some specific ideas for how to connect Scripture to your life.
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• Read prayerfully. Without God’s help through his Spirit, our understanding of Scripture will always be limited. Always begin your reading time by
asking for God’s help. Ask him to reveal to you whatever he wants you to
see as you read.
• Read with awareness of both the whole and the parts. As you begin your
reading of any Bible passage, look at the passage as an entire unit before
focusing in on key individual verses. Also remind yourself of what came
before, what you read in the previous reading. This will protect you from
taking individual verses out of context and enable you to make accurate
interpretations and applications. This is a reminder that context is important for a true understanding of any verse in God’s Word.
• Read important passages over and over again. As you come to important
passages, especially those that speak very clearly to you, mark them so you
can come back to them again and again. You are unlikely to see everything
in any passage the first time you read it. In fact, some passages could be
read daily for a lifetime without ever fully plumbing their depths.
• Read Scripture out loud. Reading aloud slows you down and allows you to
encounter God’s Word twice—through your eyes and your ears—leading
you to a deeper understanding of the passage.
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