DBR 2025
2025 Bible Reading Plan: Firmly Planted by Streams of Water
Political and moral instability in our world can cause anxiety, confusion, fear, and discouragement. In 2025, as we fill our hearts and minds with the Old Testament wisdom literature, it’ll make us more stable, assured, emotionally balanced, peaceful, fruitful, and anchored to God. As the Psalmist puts it, those who delight in God’s wisdom will “be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)
Psalms will draw us deeper into relationship with God as we behold the multi-faceted beauty of His character, promises, and presence. We’ll learn it’s okay to cry, to doubt, to question, and to be afraid, as long as we express it to God and lay it all at His feet. The Psalms will deepen our prayer life, deepen our worship, and firmly root us in God.
Proverbs will give us the wisdom not to be impulsive, but to see miles down the road of our decisions. We’ll learn how every path leads somewhere, and to get where we want to go, we have to take the right path. Proverbs will show us that the pretty lady who entices us to adultery, the clever friends who pressure us to sin, the con-man who flatters us, the get rich quick schemes and shortcuts to power are all folly disguised as wisdom. Lady Folly will flatter us and make her way sound best, but her end is destruction. When we give our hearts fully to Lady Wisdom, however, we’ll be firmly rooted and we’ll “smile at the future.” (Proverbs 31:25)
Job will show us how sometimes we take the good path from Proverbs, yet our life still falls apart. He’ll help us see how to keep our faith in the darkest moments, how to trust God with things beyond our comprehension, and how to keep our convictions despite our confusion. Job teaches us some of the greatest wisdom from God can only be learned through suffering, and we’ll be firmly rooted in the attitude, “Though He slay Me, yet I will hope in Him.” (Job 13:15)
Ecclesiastes will help us appreciate the emptiness of life without God. In “life under the sun,” terrible things happen to us, the good things don’t last, and in the end we die anyway, so what’s the point of living for God at all? It’s because with God we have meaning and hope beyond this world, which keeps us from being embittered by the pain of earthly loss, and sets us free to enjoy the good things when they come without expecting them to last forever. We’ll be firmly rooted in knowing all this world has to offer without God is just “vanity and chasing after wind” and “Who can eat or have enjoyment without Him?” (Ecclesiastes 1:14; 2:25)
Song of Solomon will help us cherish the beauty of romance, marriage, and sex. Some Christians think sex is a dirty word, but it’s not! It’s an amazing blessing God has reserved for marriage, and God is pleased when marriages become gardens of delight, and when spouses speak tenderly to each other, even in cute and corny ways. We’ll be firmly rooted by learning to wait until marriage before sex, by strengthening the emotional and physical intimacy of our marriages, and by telling our spouses, “How beautiful you are, my darling! How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves!” and “How handsome you are, my beloved, and so pleasant!” and “You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes.” (Song of Solomon 1:15-16; 4:9)