Will you join me in studying Proverbs in the upcoming year? Many people recommend a month-long challenge, but I suggest doing this each month for a year. The process is simple. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, and for each date, you read the corresponding chapter for that date. This means that chapter 31 won’t be read quite as often, but for the most part, you will read each proverb 12 times this year.
This process has specific benefits:
- You will become really familiar with this entire book. Many people follow plans to read the entire Bible through in a year, and those are incredibly valuable. However, if you read Proverbs only once in a year, it’s just not enough exposure to become familiar with this book. More than nearly any other book of the Bible, Proverbs was intended to be learned by heart. And yet, we are often more familiar with sayings from Poor Richard’s Almanac than we are with the proverbs of our heavenly Father. Choose to make this a year when you become increasingly familiar with these truths.
- You will see connections and repeated themes like never before. As you read these chapters again and again, you will see how certain themes are repeated several times. For example, the phrase “Better is” or “Is better” is repeated many times, in verses such as Proverbs 15:16: “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.” By recognizing themes that appear again and again, the themes will grow in importance in your mind, and you will be motivated to find ways to work them out in your daily life.
- Daily proverbs will refresh your thinking and help you to focus on really walking the path that Proverbs describes. So often, our priorities seem forced upon us by our culture, by our schedules, or even by other people. But we must filter all of that through the truth of scripture. Proverbs are deep and sometimes mysterious, and yet they were written for our practical use. By studying them deeply and repeatedly, as they were intended, we can make them truly a part of our daily thinking.
Will you join me in this challenge? In a previous post, I included some suggestions for how to make the most of this study. If you love bullet journaling like I do, you may want to create a schedule for yourself that also includes a place for notes.
If you subscribe to my blog, you will also receive periodic reminders and notifications of meditations on Proverbs here. We can do this together!
One resource that I have already made available is a journal that can help you track your progress and record your meditations.
Cultivate your own meditation on these truths as you read the book of Proverbs each month over the next year. This journal is a guide that will enable you to write notes, prayers, verses to memorize, and highlights from your reading. (Amazon description)
Here is a free printable for one month of tracking:
Suggested Reading:
“Derek Kidner has not only provided a running commentary on the whole of Proverbs, but has also included two helpful study aids: a set of subject guides that bring together teaching scattered throughout the book, and a short concordance that helps locate lost sayings (in territory notoriously hard to search) and encourages further subject studies. In short, this volume is a wise person’s guide to wisdom.” (Amazon description)
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