Inspire Bible

In late September, I read a tweet by Mary DeMuth saying that one of the best spiritual disciplines she has found is to read her Bible cover to cover every three months.

The tweet appeared at just the right time for me. I have read my Bible cover to cover in a year many times since the age of thirteen as well as enjoying mooching through passages in a more contemplative fashion.

But for the last couple of years since struggling with my mental health, I've found reading my Bible difficult to nigh on impossible at times. Some days all I could manage was part of a verse, other days nothing at all.

When I saw Mary's tweet, it lit me up inside and I decided to give it a go. Not necessarily in three months as that seemed a really tall order but maybe four months and I resolved not to be legalistic about it. If I had a bad day or bad week with my mental health, I wouldn't beat myself up about not reading my Bible.

I chose my NLT journaling Bible which is an easy translation to read as well as having inspiring pictures and verses to colour in.

On 1st October, I began. And I loved it. Reading big chunks at a time helped me keep track of the different characters (especially who was on what side during King David's time), as well as helping me see the bigger picture again.

God is absolutely fair and cruel, wicked people will pay in the end. Selfish rulers who are mainly interested in power and money are nothing new. Some people have always rewritten the past to suit themselves. Suffering is part of life. But God is in control. Jesus has overcome the world. One day He will come back and put everything to right - there will be justice and peace.

Granted the timing was right for me as I couldn't have coped with this challenge earlier in the year, but my mental health really benefited from this and I'm so glad I did it. It was so good to remind myself who God is and what He's like.

I've restarted from Genesis 1 today and am excited to get back into this fascinating, awesome, life-giving book.

5* is a no-brainer!