I don’t know about you but I know I can come to the Bible with a ‘me, me, me’ attitude.
“What’s the Bible going to help me understand about myself?”
“Is there a verse that can speak into the situation I’m in?”
“I need encouragement, God help!”
Of course none of this is wrong (I come to the Bible in these states frequently!) but we live in a ‘me-centric’ world. I’m aware that I curate a version of myself on social media, the Netflix homepage is tailored just for me, advertising tells me to ‘treat yo’self’.
Lent is the opposite of this. Traditionally a period of preparation before believers were baptised on Easter day, Lent reflects Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness – 40 days. All over the world people still observe Lent as a time to focus on Jesus’ journey to the cross. Many choose to give up certain pleasures so that they can embrace suffering and focus their hearts and minds.
This Bible Writing Plan is designed to help us lift our eyes from our own circumstances and focus on who God says He is. My hope is these verses will help us grow our vision of God, rather than letting the circumstances of life cloud our view of Him. We’ll start with what God says about himself and as we draw towards Easter Sunday we’ll move towards Jesus’ own words.
If you joined us during Advent then welcome back, if you are giving this a go for the first time, have a read of this blog which will explain why I’ve found writing the Bible to be so life-changing…
Each of these passages should only take a few minutes to write. It doesn’t have to be perfect, or correct, you don’t need a special notebook and the results don’t have to look pretty. Grab a Bible (any translation will do) find the passage and copy it out. Afterwards take a moment to reflect on what truth you can see about who God is.
I’ll be posting videos on Instagram stories throughout Lent to share what I’m learning. If you are giving up social media for Lent (well done you!) then you can print the pdf and enjoy your new practice free from all distractions!
Bryony