As I’m preparing a sermon on rest from Matthew 11:28-30, one helpful tool in knowing how to rest and then for entering into rest are good books. Below are a few helpful books on the need for rest, how to rest, and then a couple that provide rest for the soul through their focus on on resting in our good shepherd’s care.
For an article, here’s one I posted with Gospel-Centered Discipleship called, “Why Resting is More Important that Relaxing.“
Continue reading A Few Books on RestBible reading plans help take the off our shoulders deciding what to read each day. They also provide a reasonable amount of reading per day and a short enough plan (such as 31 days) that you can commit to it. That’s why I’m such a fan of them and have created a number of different Bible reading plans for myself or churches over the years.
Below are two 31-day reading plans to choose from to kick off the new year (or you could even read both). One goes through Proverbs, one chapter a day, in an attempt to begin the year with a focus on gaining wisdom. We’ll all need it in 2024. The other option wades through four of Paul’s letters: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.
Continue reading 2 January Bible Reading PlansBible reading plans help answer the question, “What should I read today?” Rather than randomly flipping open the Bible and reading whatever page you open, it’s helpful to read through a whole book of the Bible. Starting this Sunday, my church will read through 1 & 2 Peter and James during the 30 days of September. You can download the reading plan and suggested questions for study here.
The Bible says a lot about prayer. You don’t have to know all these things to start praying, but they can help us better pray in line with God’s will and desire. Below are condensed, summary statements on prayer in the Bible. This list is a taken from a Group Study Guide on Spiritual Disciplines. This might help us know ways to pray, what to pray about, how to approach God, or why some things might not be answered. Hopefully the list frees us up as we see how different praying can look and how God is at work in and through our praying.
“Look, prayer is spilling your guts. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t have to be tidy. It doesn’t have to be particularly eloquent or even particularly intelligent. But the Bible is how God speaks to us and prayer is how we speak to God. These two rhythms form the dynamic of our friendship with the God of the universe. You can’t be good friends with someone you don’t listen to, and you can’t be good friends with someone you don’t talk to. So we go about our personal devotions by studying the Bible to hear what God would say to us and then praying to God that he would forgive us for our hard-heartedness against his Word and empower us to understand it better and make it resonate more deeply in our hearts. Spilling our guts in prayer is how we process God’s words to us. Prayer is how we interact with our friend Jesus.” Jared Wilson
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