If there’s anything I’ve learned while rehabilitating from a broken Autonomic Nervous System, it’s that we human beings have unrealistically high expectations for ourselves.
We think that we can master self-improvement and gain control of our lives by implementing the right systems, following the right rules, or walking through the right doors. With enough discipline and verve, the life we’ve always wanted is within reach.
New Year’s resolutions are the perfect example of this faulty thinking.
The irony is that, less than two weeks into the brand-new year, nearly 80% of people give up on their carefully thought-out resolutions. Thus, the second Friday in January has been dubbed “Quitter’s Day”.
On Quitter’s Day, the self-help gurus come out in droves to encourage you to keep going, to convince you that you aren’t a quitter, and to offer you their fast-acting, no-fail, self-improvement scheme at a special Quitter’s Day discount.
I am no self-help guru, so I’m going to tell you a secret the self-help industry does not want you to know:
Failing to maintain your New Year’s resolutions past Quitter’s Day doesn’t make you a quitter. It makes you human.
In fact, a better name for Quitter’s Day might be, “I-Remembered-I-was-Human-and-not-God Day.”
You didn’t quit. Your self-help ideals simply couldn’t hold up against your God-given limitations as a created human being. As humbling as that is, this reminder is a gift of God’s grace and not a source of shame.
Our drive to make and act on New Year’s Resolutions each year comes from a good place, not a sinful one. We long to be better people—the versions of ourselves that God created us to be. But we tend to forget that this kind of transformation doesn’t come through our efforts alone.
We don’t need to be made better. We need to be made new.
And the road to true and lasting transformation can be painfully long and slow.
Willpower or Discipline?
The mistake most of us make when setting our resolutions is depending on sheer willpower to carry us through, rather than grace-empowered discipline.
Willpower is the ability to resist momentary temptations. It requires us to power through our emotions and tune out our hesitations. Willpower takes raw effort and requires perfect consistency in order to yield lasting change. Although it can be helpful and necessary, willpower alone cannot sustain true transformation.
Grace-empowered discipline, on the other hand, remembers that we are but dust (Genesis 3:19) and that, though we are made in God’s image, we do not possess God’s infinitude.
Grace-empowered discipline takes into consideration our emotions, circumstances, desires, and limitations as we are transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). It does not ask us to be something we are not. Grace-empowered discipline allows for failure, backwards steps, and do-overs as we slowly and humbly form habits over time to help us become more like Jesus. It equips us to move forward, fall down, and, by the gracious power of the Holy Spirit, get back up again.
I believe this is perhaps what the author of Hebrews had in mind when he exhorts us in chapter 12 to “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet (v. 12-13)” as we “run with endurance the race that is set before us (v. 1)”. We do this, not through willpower, grit, or sheer determination, but by asking God to help us keep “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (v.2)”.
10 Truths to Help You Persevere in Daily Bible Reading
With these freeing truths about our humanness and limitations ringing in our ears, I wanted to share some helpful tips for those of us who may have gotten off track with our New Year’s Bible reading plans.
If you, like many Christians, set a resolution this year regarding your daily Bible reading habit, it’s quite possible that you (like many Christians) have gotten off course here in this first week of February.
So, I want to offer 10 encouragements to help lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, so you can persevere in the habit of daily Bible reading and prayer. We will fix our eyes on Jesus and take hold of the grace he offers us as we move forward with humility and gratitude.
- Habits don’t need to begin on the first of the year, or the first of the month, or the first day of the week, or the first hour of the day. God will bless your Bible-reading efforts whether you begin them on Sunday, January 1, at 5 AM or Thursday, August 12, at 2:37 PM.
- Nothing kills a quiet time habit faster than all-or-nothing thinking. Anything worth doing is worth doing imperfectly. Give God whatever time and energy you have and trust Him to make it enough to sustain you in the good work he has called you to do.
- Bible-in-year plans are great for those who already have a firmly established Bible-reading habit. But for those who don’t, consider giving yourself some grace: don’t make up missed days— just pick up where you last left off in your plan; ignore the date entirely, and keep reading at whatever pace works best for you; or consider doing only half of the plan this year and the other half next year.
- Bible reading, prayer, personal Bible Study, and devotional reading are different spiritual disciplines with different purposes and processes. They do not need to happen all at the same time or in the same way. You can spread things out, do different things on different days, and take varying amounts of time.
- If you keep missing your Bible reading, then make your Bible unmissable. Keep several Bibles open around your house or workplace, especially in places you tend to wait. Read a few verses intermittently as you go about your day.
- Quiet times do not need to be quiet. Noise and interruptions should be expected and adjusted for, but they don’t need to kill your habit.
- Quiet times do not need to happen at one single time during the day. Have as many Bible-reading and prayer times as you need to connect your heart to God’s.
- Be flexible and get creative. The Bible reading and prayer habit that worked well for you in one season may not work for you in this season. Find and use the resources and tools that make sense for the season you are in.
- Good devotional habits include two things: Bible reading and prayer. That’s it. There is no need to overcomplicate something that was intended to be simple.
God Wants Your Heart, Not Your Performance
The most important thing to remember when establishing a lasting quiet time habit is this: the heart behind your habit matters more than how you perform it. We are nurturing a relationship with our Creator, not checking a task off our to-do list. We pursue the daily habits of Bible reading and prayer because we want to know and enjoy God more and, in doing so, become more like him.
In a world that idolizes productivity and efficiency, having a daily quiet time is countercultural. Because daily quiet times are only effective when we separate them from our incessant need to achieve and perform.
So the next time you find yourself struggling to maintain a consistent Bible-reading and prayer habit, take a moment to ask yourself:
- Am I trying to pursue a perfect quiet time by muscling through my God-given limitations to silence shame and win God’s favor?
- Or am I bringing my limitations to God, knowing I already have his favor, to pursue a flourishing relationship with him?
How you answer these questions will make the difference between a quiet time habit that fades and one that lasts a lifetime.
Need Help Getting Started?
Looking for some tools to help you establish a daily Bible reading habit? I got ya!
- Grab The Quiet Time Workbook to methodically and thoughtfully establish a quiet time routine that works for you.
- Make your way through the Bible in chronological order at your own pace, with this undated Bible reading plan and journal.
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