Help! I Missed a Day of My Bible Reading Plan

4 Ways to Still Move Forward in Grace

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

6am. Your alarm goes off. If you get up now, you’ll have 30 minutes to read the Word and pray before the chaos of the day sets in. But instead of getting up, you hit the snooze. And then you hit it again. And again. And before you know it, it’s 6:30 and you have to get up because the world has said that now your life must start whether you’re ready for it to or not. And so your day begins with a low grade sense of guilt, as you grumpily wake the kids and try to throw something quick together for breakfast.

Sound familiar? It certainly does to me. Knowing that there’ll be an empty box next to today’s assigned passage in your reading plan can really gnaw at you. And in these moments, it’s easy to live out of guilt rather than the Lord’s new morning mercies. But I don’t think that’s a good idea. After all, each day we have is precious. And they should be treated as such, even if they didn’t get off to the start we’d hoped for.

So what do you do when you miss a day of your Bible reading? How can you still redeem it for the glory of God? Here are 4 ways.

#1. Remember the Gospel

Ready for some good news? You aren’t saved on the basis of your daily Scripture reading. The basis of your salvation is found in the finished work of Christ alone. So, rather than wallow in your sense of failure, rehearse this Gospel truth and then let your thankfulness for it overflow into prayer.

#2. Pray urgently for God’s grace

As soon as possible — like at a redlight or while you’re waiting on the Keurig, or in the drive thru lane because you didn’t have time to eat breakfast at the house — pray for the Lord’s empowering grace to strengthen you to walk in obedience and live this day for His glory. Yes, you may have missed an opportunity to really soak in God’s Word and allow its truth to change you, but your heavenly Father doesn’t require Bible reading before He will listen to your prayers for help.

Having said that, there’s still a way you can meditate on the Word even if you didn’t read it that morning.

#3. Seek nourishment for your soul from Bible verses you can remember

This is where all of your previous Scripture reading is like a well from which you can draw satisfying nourishment for your soul. Even if it’s only a brief verse like Romans 8:1 (Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus), take that truth and meditate on it throughout your day. Maybe even jot it down on a Post It note and keep it within your line of vision. The idea here is that you can meditate on God’s Word even if you didn’t read it that morning.

Along similar lines, if your routine allows you to listen to a sermon while engaging in other activities, do it!

#4. Determine why you missed today and make the necessary course corrections

Finally, take some time to consider why you didn’t read today. Were you too tired to get out of bed? Maybe you’re not getting enough sleep. Why is that? Are you staying up too late watching TV or did your kid wake up sick in the middle of the night? If it’s the latter, then cut yourself some slack and let it create an even deeper appetite for the Word tomorrow morning. If it’s the former, then maybe it’s time to think about some adjustments to your night time routine. Or maybe, it’s something else entirely. Whatever the case, run some diagnostic tests and get at the root of why you missed. That’s much more constructive than just beating yourself up all day and can lead to greater faithfulness in the future.

Moving Forward in Grace

Our goal should be to read God’s Word every day of our lives. Afterall, it’s where we encounter the triune God who called us, justified us, adopted us, sanctified us, and will one day be with us forever in a new heavens and new earth. So why would we not want to read it? But the truth is, we’re going to miss days from time to time. I don’t say that to justify defeatism. In fact, I’m very optimistic that we can attain great levels of faithfulness in reading the Word regularly — In sort of the same way that we brush our teeth everyday. It’s just what we do. In fact, that’s what I plan to talk about in next month’s edition of Treasured Truths: Strategies to increase faithfulness and consistency in Bible reading and prayer.

But when we do miss a day on our reading plan, I hope these strategies will help you to live under the grace that is available to you from your heavenly Father through the finished work of His Son.

That’s all the time I have for now. Thank you for yours!

Warmly,
Drew