Not without Hope: God's Sovereignty Amidst Broken Vows

Today's guest blogger is Jessica Cleveland Thoms. Jessica lives in middle Tennessee where she currently teaches high school English. You can usually find her writing, shopping, attending concerts, laughing at her own jokes, loving on any animal she can find, and purchasing unnecessary items covered in glitter. She and her husband, Tristin, are both members at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Orlinda, Tennessee, and this is her final post in a three-part series on marriage. You can read more of Jessica's writing at Grace for Sparrows.

At 1 AM the night before my first day of the fall semester, my husband turned our bedroom light on and sat on the edge of our bed.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that he is one of the strongest men I’ve ever met in my life.  He has overcome more challenges than anyone I know and has the mark of God’s power and protection all over his life and testimony.  Very little causes him true pain because of this, so when he broke down that night, I knew that something had pierced his soul.

For the first time in our five years of marriage, I watched as my strong, resilient husband openly wept as he begged me for forgiveness for his affair, which he then confessed was never just emotionally-rooted as he had previously claimed.

He cried out to God for forgiveness.  He knew I would leave him for this and would be seemingly justified in doing so.  He had lost over forty pounds in mere weeks.  He was physically sick.

He was a shattered man—not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I blacked out when he first started speaking; in fact, I was so absolutely sick that I had to ask him to start over so that I could truly process everything.  I had just survived the last few weeks of intense emotional turmoil and thought we had rounded the corner—after all, as devastating as everything was, it could have been worse.  This new revelation confirmed my worst nightmare regarding his infidelity. It ripped every scab open and dumped salt into it.  I admit that I have never wanted to die more than I did in that moment.

During the summer of my senior year of high school, the incredible counselors at the Concoxions Ministries youth camp Seesalt performed sections of a nightly skit that ended up being a modern reenactment of the Prodigal Son parable.  One of the most memorable experiences from that week was the finale of the skit on stage: after several dead ends and missed connections at an airport, an exhausted son finally saw his long-lost father in a terminal, and as Coldplay’s “Fix You” played in the background, they wept as they embraced and reunited after what seemed like an eternity at the end of that week.  Watching such a visual representation of Christ lovingly embrace His chosen children after they make a mess out of their own life over and over again has cemented that scene in my memory forever.

Much like the father in that skit, as I sat on our bed and took in the gravity of everything my husband confessed, I couldn’t say or do anything except hold out my arms to a destroyed man.  We embraced and sobbed together in utter brokenness for hours. 

This night was just the beginning of a long and deeply painful road full of biblical counseling, confessions, rebuilding, and forgiveness.  Believe me, we aren’t done yet; in fact, I don’t think we will ever be “done.”  God’s grace has sustained us, reconciliation has taken place, and progress has been made, but marriage is never an accomplishment that can be perfected and checked off a to-do list.

If you have been following this blog series, or even if this is your first read, I’d like to take the opportunity to share some things I’ve learned in the time since these events so that it may help others who have been in or know of someone who has been in such a place also.  I’ve had plenty of people scoff at me and shake their heads or tell me I was a fool, and that’s okay.  It comes with being an obedient Christian.  Here are just a few of the many things God has taught me through the trial of adultery:

1.     Others’ sins can and should become an effective tool for convicting us of OUR sins, thereby drawing us closer to Christ.
I am ashamed to admit that I’ve spent more time with Christ in the last few months than I have in the last couple of years combined.  Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night longing for the Word. I can listen to praise music and hymns and understand lyrics about pain and brokenness, and now I truly know what it feels like for the Lord to “bind up my wounds” (Psalm 147:3).  Despite my overwhelming grief, I have found Jesus to be so gentle—in a way that I never understood before such intense sorrow. I also examined my own many shortcomings and made a conscious effort to fix those instead of choosing to be selfish and play the victim, which is new for me.  My husband stated that my Christlike attitude and meek spirit in the face of his brazen selfishness and sin is what convicted him of his sins the most and drew him back to both God and me.  He wanted me to react like the rest of the world (think setting his stuff on fire outside) because it would’ve solidified and “justified” his sin in his mind.  A Proverbs 31 woman who loves the Lord is a thing to be cherished, and her beauty is far more enticing than that which is superficial/skin-deep to those who truly love God.  This is not something that girls just post in their social media bio.  It’s a biblical truth.

2.     Never EVER think that you’re so advanced in your walk with Christ that you’re bulletproof against “big” sins.
Friends, Satan’s got your number.  If you don’t believe me (and you should because it’s in the Bible), get slightly cocky about a sin you think you’ll never struggle with and watch what happens.  Were there warning signs that our marriage was in trouble before the affair?  Absolutely.  Did we both purposefully and intently place barriers and accountability in our lives and ramp up our relationship with Christ in order to deter us from sin in moments (months) of weakness?  That’s a hard no, and that’s a painful lesson that’s been very difficult to grapple with.  I’m not saying that doing that would’ve 100% prevented my husband’s infidelity, but it sure would’ve been a biblical step in the right direction.  Instead, we both chose to focus on what wasn’t right in our marriage and became self-serving. The true purpose of marriage requires us to continuously die to self.  We both failed to do that, and though the Holy Spirit does indeed give true believers the power to not sin, it becomes very easy to choose sin when we’ve started to ignore what the Bible says and do what we want in every other aspect of our lives.  Before this, if you had asked me what sin I would never commit, I would’ve probably said adultery.  I no longer have an answer for this hypothetical question.  As long as I am in this pathetically weak human shell and Satan is still at large, I’m liable to do quite literally anything if I grieve the Spirit and worship myself.  You’re not special because you’ve been saved longer or know Jesus better.  Do not underestimate the Enemy (1 Peter 5:8). We must remain vigilant.  Our marriages, testimonies, and very souls depend on it.

3.     Jesus wept with others who hurt, and so should we.

One of the many difficult things about my job as a teacher is that you have to be “on” fulltime.  It’s the biggest and most underpaid acting gig in the universe.  On my first day of in-service this school year, I was running on three hours of sleep and had just been given the most devastating news of my life less than ten hours prior. I then had to sit in meetings upon meetings about why my department’s test scores were so low and how we could be better this year.  I had truly ignorant (and emotionally defunct) coworkers telling me I should be more excited about a new school year and that I needed to display a more team-player attitude because I wasn’t all shouts and giggles about new strategies being implemented for state testing goals and other new directions within the school.

Friends, it really doesn’t take much to read a room and figure out when things are wrong in someone’s life if you pull your head out of your own bum and actually look around.  It took mere minutes for some coworkers to judge from my expression that I was dying.  Before casting judgments about someone’s attitude or lack of enthusiasm, it would behoove you if you are a Christian to not only empathize with that individual, but to then use that opportunity to talk to and be Jesus to them.  When that VERY small handful of coworkers actually stopped to notice that something was off, I told them the truth.  I have nothing to hide from anyone.  I was just empty and had nothing left to give anyone or anything else, not only that day, but for the majority of the entire semester.  In hindsight, I probably should have taken the semester off (probably the entire school year), but I pray that God used me despite my utter exhaustion.  You’ve heard that you never really know what people are going through, and I’m telling you it’s true.  Teachers often use that mantra as a reminder of how to treat and approach their students, but you should also (perhaps even foremost) use this same mantra to notice, love on, and pray for others who are in the trenches beside you in the day-to-day.  Shattered people can’t help other shattered people.  It is your duty as a Christian to have your priorities straight, even and especially at work.  You are a Christian first and an employee much later; seek out and minister to the broken.  I would not still be standing if God hadn’t given me an army of prayer warriors who ministered to me daily during these events (and continue to do so today).

4.     Everyone has some sort of idol. Find out what it is and deal with it immediately.

I think we tend to lump God’s commands on idolatry in a corner.  We’re not a barbaric nation that bows to tiny carved gods or offers sacrifices, so we’re good on that, right?  Let me share with you some of the idols I worshipped until God revealed them to me through this experience: perfection, freedom, selfishness, self-truth, individuality, money, acceptance, comfort, education, my husband, my time.  I would even go so far as to say that the greater percentage of Americans in the church idolize and worship entertainment, comfort, and even their own children.  Darrell Bernard Harrison once said that “what makes a thing or person a ‘god’ is not who or what the person or thing is, but the value or worth we ascribe to that person or thing. In other words, it’s what the person or thing means to us that makes it or them an idol to us.” I had made a god of my marriage—my perfect marriage—my perfect Christian marriage. I justified it by saying it was one of God’s greatest “blessings,” which is not untrue, but this buzzword is quickly thrown at things we know are gifts from God and it eventually eases our consciences when we hold on to them a little too tightly. I made a god out of making the right moves in life.  I made a god out of doing everything “by the book” and avoiding what I perceived to be poor life choices that other couples made, thereby avoiding the stress they brought upon themselves (i.e. embracing comfort).  I made a god out of a trial-free life.  I made a god out of doing the right thing and subtly thinking it would be smooth sailing for me because of it.  Hear me loud and clear, reader— THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL.  Our health and wealth, prosperity gospel-loving culture is a liar.  It. Is. Not. True.  God does not care about your “happiness” or you being comfortable (see “The Marital Slaughterhouse” for the truth about happiness).  If this were so, Jesus would’ve told us to take up our comfy chairs and bask in our own happiness and truth.  He didn’t say that.  He said to take up your cross and follow after Him (Matthew 16:24).  A cross isn’t comfortable and happy.  It’s an execution tool—a literal death sentence. He cares about your pursuit of holiness and you dying to yourself, and that rarely comes about when you have a six-figure income and everything is always hunky dory.  Kill your idols and whatever part of yourself that makes you think you and your desires are the center of the universe.

5.     A BIBLICALLY HEALTHY CHURCH, PASTOR, AND ELDERS ARE VITAL IN EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS.
This will probably ruffle some feathers, but you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell for a truly successful and biblically-solid marriage if you don’t understand what being married even means in light of Scripture.  At some point in your life, the world is going to rip you apart, and you’re going to need an army of resources.  If your church/pastor/leadership isn’t biblically-rooted, or if you’re not even a part of a church, may God have mercy on your souls.  It’s not if, but when.  I beg you—do NOT be arrogant enough to think that this couldn’t happen to you.  I never in a thousand years would have ever dreamed that I would be affected by marital infidelity.  My husband never did either; in fact, he has been so deeply disturbed and disgusted by the ripple effects of his sin that he has taken drastic measures to set up barriers for himself in the aftermath.  I knew that my husband was truly saved and would acknowledge the sins he committed, but I really thought it would be months or years down the road after our divorce had finalized and he got tired of “playing house.” To my shock, God’s timing worked much sooner.  I truly believe that the biblical foundation that had been laid in our five years at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church is a large reason for this.  My husband had listened to half a decade of Truth; he knew what he needed to do because of our leadership’s consistent faithfulness in proclaiming the Truth.  I will never be able to express how thankful I am for our church’s unwavering adherence to Scripture.  It has saved our lives in so many ways.

6.     Sin, trials, and adversity should not be hidden as they have been within the church for so long. They should be shared because they provide an even bigger platform to tell everyone about Christ and His glory.
That’s the best part about all of this. These evil acts and intentions have forced me center-stage in a small town for a public response, where I have ONLY BY GOD’S BOUNTIFUL AND UNENDING GRACE been able to forgive the sins committed against me.  I have been able to tell countless women who were praying for me or who knew about the situation about how I was able to forgive my husband and love him ten times greater than before his affair.  I now have women contacting ME on social media asking, “Can you tell me how you were able to forgive him?”  This is not for me to glory in myself, for it doesn’t have a single thing to do with me.  Apart from the grace of Christ, I shudder to think what my evil-loving flesh would have me do.  Instead, all of this sets up the perfect opportunity for me to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’m able to delve into how Jesus loves me forever and forgives me every single time I fail Him (which is daily, FYI).  When you truly understand this and understand that the REAL purpose of marriage is to reflect the relationship between Christ and His Church, it becomes quite obvious: if we really believe what we say we believe as Christians, we MUST forgive, especially our spouses, even for seemingly “unthinkable” acts like infidelity.  I have been able to meditate on the book of Hosea and place myself in the prophet’s shoes. At one time, I would have been appalled at the fact that Hosea not only married a prostitute, but that he took her back after she had left him to have children by other men.  Of course, this is a parallel of much more than a troubled marriage between two people—it’s the story of the one True God Who continuously forgives and redeems His people, no matter how often we play the harlot or bed other gods and idols.  God saw our evil nature and knew that we would never be able to keep His perfect Law—that perfect Law that we tend to worship and long for so much—so He sent His Son, Who was 100% man and 100% God, to die for sinners like you AND me on Calvary.  Jesus became sin for us despite being completely perfect and innocent, and God even raised Him from the dead on the third day, conquering death and sin forever.  If you don’t truly know Christ, I beg you to repent, turn away from your sins, and place faith in Him, for He is the only way you and I have eternal security and salvation.  He casts our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), and He gives us the ability to NOT sin after we have trusted Him through the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6).  Do not grieve His heart a moment longer—rush to the foot of the cross and be made whole.  I don’t want you to think that this is easy and that I have all of the answers either.  Admittedly, it was much easier to forgive my husband because he was repentant; it has been difficult to forgive the other woman because she is not.  I trust that the power of God will enable me to do this within His perfect timing.

You may think that I’m absolutely crazy after reading this, but I assure you that if you have been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ, you will understand.  It’s only “folly to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

I close this blog series with the words of Joseph—someone else who understood the great power of God’s forgiveness and how we must be imitators of Him to those who curse us (Ephesians 5:1-2, Matthew 5:44).

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” (Genesis 50:20)

If you have been following this series, I want you to know how much your support means to me.  If you identify with my story and are hurting, know that I am with you.  Sin is never ever committed in a vacuum—it has ripple effects that you cannot even begin to fully understand (I’ll give you specific examples if you ever want to talk about it one-on-one).  There are many, MANY days where I still hurt.  Strange things trigger me and my emotions.  I was borderline suicidal during the first week of school earlier this month.  I didn’t want to celebrate or decorate for Christmas (and didn’t).  I still haven’t decorated our new home because a part of me still grieves that we even had to leave our first one.  There is still pain, friends, and there will likely be various waves and stages for years and decades to come.  Grieving over infidelity is much like grieving over a death in some ways.  Though everyone is still living, what once existed is forever changed, but not without hope.  We must cry out to Jesus.  He knows about every last tear you’ve (I’ve) cried.  He hears your (my) breaking heart.  He is with us right now.  Run to Him—He is able to do far more than we expect or fathom.  He has been so, SO good to me despite and through my pain.

If you take nothing else from these posts, let it be this:

There is truly NOTHING that can happen to you that can’t be used for the glory of God.  You just have to trust that He IS sovereign and let Him use you.

My husband and I are living proof that despite our foolishness and pride and self-serving tendencies, the scars of our sins can still proclaim the glorious grace and power of Jesus Christ.  We were blind, but now, we see.

--> May He be glorified forever and ever in our story for generations to come

"Through the Fire"

Today's guest blogger is Jessica Cleveland Thoms. Jessica lives in middle Tennessee where she currently teaches high school English. You can usually find her writing, shopping, attending concerts, laughing at her own jokes, loving on any animal she can find, and purchasing unnecessary items covered in glitter. She and her husband, Tristin, are both members at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Orlinda, Tennessee, and this is her second post in a three-part series on marriage. You can read more of Jessica's writing at Grace for Sparrows.

First of all, I hope readers will understand the true motive of this three-part blog series on marriage.  It is not for the purpose of airing dirty laundry or showcasing even slightly perceived self-righteousness.  The reason I was even approached about telling my story on this platform in the first place is so that it could encourage others who are in the trenches of marriage and ultimately become a mirror that reflects the incredible glory and power of God.  With that sole purpose in mind, I share with you part two of this series.

In today’s extremely disposable culture, a five-year wedding anniversary is something to be celebrated. 

Last summer, I had spent most of my time off work lining up the most perfect anniversary celebration for my husband and myself; I had ordered a gown, made restaurant reservations, dry-cleaned his suit, booked a hair and makeup appointment, and even orchestrated for a photographer to take anniversary pictures of us before dinner.  It was going to be perfect.

My husband didn’t seem to care one way or the other, but that wasn’t unusual.  I’m used to him humoring me and going through the motions because he loves me and trusts me to handle the adulting.

And then, just a few days before our anniversary, an intuition that I can only attribute to the Holy Spirit hit me. 

Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.  And when he became increasingly withdrawn and sullen and wouldn’t talk to me about it, I followed the evidence trail to the biggest shock of my life.

An ex of his had resurfaced on social media. They had spent hours on the phone before and after work for weeks. She conveniently lived close by. And while he promised that it had not manifested physically, they had pledged their love to one another and commitment to building a new life together.

I do not exaggerate when I say that my entire world was shattered. I had known that our marriage was not in a great place (I had posted “The Marital Slaughterhouse”—part one of this series—on my personal blog just a few weeks prior), but I was hell-bent and determined to celebrate the fact that we had made it to five years at least.  Besides that, I may not have been happily married, but I was still married and planning on staying married.

My initial reactions were definitely of the flesh. I wept, I pleaded, I begged, and ultimately, I went to stay with my parents.  I couldn’t fathom how he had seemingly turned this switch off, how he could just be “done” with no chance for us to truly work on anything.  Despite my great level of unhappiness, I had told myself I would never, EVER give up the way that he had.

The night before our five-year anniversary, my husband sat down to talk with both me and our pastor (who married us) about the whole ordeal.  My husband’s expression was completely flat and emotionless as he looked at both of us and declared, “I have been done with this marriage for a long time. I don’t love Jessica, and I’m ready to get divorced. NOTHING will change my mind.”

I still couldn’t believe it.  This was not my husband.  I truly believed that, based upon his years of fruit and public profession, my husband had saving faith through Christ.  This was NOT supposed to happen, and especially not to ME.  I had done everything right.  I had gone to church and served in church and gone to college and held a job and respected my parents and got my husband in church and posted Bible verses on social media and all of those other little things that, if we were really honest, we often tell ourselves are enough penance for God to “reward” us with an easy and blessed life (more on that foolish and damnable ideology later in part three of this series).

The next several weeks were a roller coaster.  I canceled all of my fancy celebratory plans and convinced him to go eat dinner with me on our actual anniversary.  He even stayed in our home that night but assured me it was solely to appease me and that he would be living with his parents until the divorce was finalized.  I begged him not to file any paperwork for at least two weeks, to which, by the absolute grace of God, he agreed to, and he even agreed to spend every other night in our home instead of his parents’.

Friends, let me just pause here to tell you how sweet Jesus is.  He is sweet in a way that I never even understood until I was absolutely alone in that apartment in the wee hours of the morning, that fresh and bright little apartment that I absolutely loved and spent so much time decorating and making into a home for us that year. Do you know what it’s like to lie on the floor and weep Psalms to the Savior at 3AM night after night?  It’s humbling and heartbreaking, among so many other things. 

No matter how broken I was and how much I wept, I 100% absolutely and without a doubt had peace about the entire situation.  This fact is not logical or scientific by any means whatsoever.  Friend, if you have never had your world ripped out from under you yet and you don’t have a strong hold on the total sovereignty of God, I beg you to prepare by trusting in His sufficiency now.  I would not have survived this ordeal without that foundation of faith and trust.  This did not alter my extreme sadness and heartbreak, but it did give me comfort in knowing that God had a reason for what was happening or it would not have happened.

It was extremely clear to me at this point: my husband was going to divorce me.  He was only waiting to file in order to honor a last request from me.  He was still communicating with and seeing the woman he claimed to love.  He was excited about becoming a dad to her kids.  Our marriage was indeed over, and yet, Jesus continued to supply me with indescribable peace amidst the heartbreak.

I taped Mark 9:24 to my mirror and prayed it dozens of times throughout the day.  I prayed Psalms.  I played and sang out hymns, just as David did.  I laid in the arms of my sweet mama and cried.  At the recommendation of a friend, I began listening to an audiobook of Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife, where my perspective of marriage and understanding of how to be a wife was completely obliterated.  If you’re a wife and you haven’t read it, I implore you to do so, regardless if your marriage is great or falling apart or your husband has already left; there is literally a chapter and biblically sound advice for every single situation. 

One of the many, many key things I took away from this book was how selfish I had been by focusing on what my husband failed to do in my eyes, especially in the wake of everything that had recently happened.  Peace argues that even if the greater percentage of a marriage’s problems belong to one spouse, the other spouse must own 100% of THEIR percentage of the problems and failures.  I had wholeheartedly failed to do that.  I was also convicted of the fact that we had “normalized” the concept of divorce in our household during our many months of marital strife.  It became commonplace for us to speak of what would happen if we got divorced, or how we would definitely still be in contact with one another on such and such holiday, or how we would still text and hang out, or that we should go ahead and have a child together even if we split up because there was no better person in our immediate realms to procreate with and we weren’t getting any younger.  I cannot express how vital it is to the wellbeing of your marriage for the word “divorce” to never escape your lips.  We live in a world where it’s extremely easy to get caught up in divorce becoming a viable option, even (especially?) within the church.  Fight this temptation.  Fight it hard.

What the Lord prompted me to do next is going to fly all over some readers.  The following words have lost and will continue to lose me respect, empathy, and even friendships.

They will place me on a metaphorical pedestal of mockery in the wake of a feminist, marriage-hating culture that cries out, “Men ain’t crap,” though men be the very image-bearers of the Living God. 

They may even make an entire community turn their heads in disgust and question how an “educated woman” can be so utterly “stupid.”

I vowed that even if my husband was going to leave me, I was going to do everything I could, by God’s grace, to be humble, serving, and Christlike.  I scrubbed our apartment by myself until it was spotless because I knew he liked thing orderly.  I cooked his favorite meals on the nights he chose to stay at our home.  I continued to read Scripture and pray.  I confessed my inadequateness both to him and to the Lord in all respects.  I apologized for my shortcomings, despite the fact that he was not sorrowful about any of his.  I bit the inside of my cheek until it literally bled when his mistress shot me looks in the streets of our small town. I prayed for more meekness.  I prayed that I could be silent when needed.  I prayed for boldness when I needed to speak.  I listened to theological podcasts.  I read Lysa TerKeurst’s timely story of marital redemption and prayed for more faith.  I prayed for the right spirit and attitude, not just for this situation, but for the rest of my life regardless of the outcome of our marriage.  I prayed for a miracle, but I prayed for peace even though our marriage was over.

At first, my husband was terribly mean in the face of my actions.  Looking back now, I can clearly see that this reaction was an outward display of his internal pushback against the Holy Spirit’s drawing in and conviction of his glaring sin.  A few nights into our new norm, he asked me why I was being so nice to him after everything he was doing to me.  I could only respond in tears then, but the answer was and is that it was the only way to behave as a true follower of Christ, and He alone gave me the power to do it.  Trust me, I wanted to retaliate.  I wanted to beat the other woman senseless.  I wanted her to hurt the way I was hurting, especially since I had always tried to be nice to her in the years that I had known her.  I had to continuously remind myself that God in the flesh was reviled by the world and had done nothing, and yet, He didn’t open His mouth or retaliate once (Isaiah 53:7).

The end of the two weeks came, and no paperwork was filed.  He had stopped staying at his parents’ house.  We laughed and cried and talked into the early morning hours.  His communication with her slowed and then became virtually nonexistent.  I thought that the worst was over, that we just might have made it through the fire, for better or for worse.  He had not yet apologized or asked for forgiveness from me, but I could see traces of his true personality coming back.  God indeed had intervened; He had prevented the progression of the worst at this point.  It was nothing short of a miracle.  But unbeknownst to me, the Lord was still preparing me for the repercussions of this trial.

I will stop here to remind you that this post is not a recipe for divorce prevention. I dare not tell you that following these same steps will stop the end of your marriage.  I am confident, however, that faithfulness to following God’s will and Word always brings about the results that are for our good and His glory in some way, even if we can’t see it immediately.  I am still married, and God is good.  I feel the ripple effects of these events every single week in some form or fashion, but God is still good. Even if my marriage had ended and I was completely alone, God would still be good.  He is good—always.  And His goodness was about to be revealed to me in new ways—even in the amplified heartache that was still to come.

"Stay In the Book"

Happy New Year! It is hard to believe it is 2019. And with the New Year beginning today, it is a great time to commit to reading through your Bible systematically. I have a favorite saying to those who come to embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior. I like to tell them, "Stay in the book!" In other words, READ YOUR BIBLE! I wonder if any of you read your Bible in its entirety this year? Did you know it only takes 72 hours to read your Bible straight through? Or if you read 16 chapters, which would take an hour a day, you could read the Bible in 3 months?  Many claims, "I don't have the time" but in reality, we all have the same 24 hours a day. Its how we choose to use them.

Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt.4:4). We would be foolish, nor would we go days, even months without eating food. We would never starve ourselves when it comes to physical food; so why is it there are many who profess to follow Christ who starves themselves from their spiritual food? I believe there are two clear-cut answers:

First, if a person does not desire to spend time in God's Word they have allowed sin to overcome them. They have failed to understand the glories of Christ found in His Word. They are forsaking the communion and worship of God by replacing it with some other god. A.W. Tozer said, "Whatever keeps me from my Bible is my enemy." Perhaps, you have struggled with reading God's Word on a regular basis this year or since becoming a Christian. You must repent. Ask God to forgive you and to help you. Then ask Him to help you become more discipline.   Set an appointment and stick to it as if your life, no your soul depended upon it.  

 Second, if a person has no desire to spend time in God's Word it maybe they are not a Christian. When a person who has been born again by the Spirit of God, He gives them a desire to read God's Word. No one will have to convince them to read, study, and meditate on God's Word. God the Holy Spirit gives that person a holy hunger for the things of God. If you have no desire to read the Word of God you may need to examine yourself (2 Cor.13:5) to see if you are in the faith.

Regardless, I suggest each person have a systematic way of reading God's Word. I like reading different plans each year, as well as from different translations. This last year I read the Old/New Testament passages each day plan and read from HCSB. I like reading from my a hard copy of the Bible instead of an electronic one. There are too many distractions when reading from electronic one and I suggest the same. This year I have chosen the "5 Day Reading Plan." 

In closing, there are many reading plans, mobile apps, and daily reminders that there is really no excuse for a Christian not to read their Bibles on a daily basis. So, I am placing a link on here that has several different Bible reading plans to choose from. Click the link to choose your Bible Reading Plans for 2019. The main thing is to simply READ YOUR BIBLE!  I'd also be interested to hear which one you choose. Let me know. And may the Lord be pleased to reveal more of Himself to you as you seek to know more of Him in 2019. SDG.