On the bookshelf in my office sits a small, spiral-bound flip calendar given to me as a gift for Christmas last year. Its thin paper pages number 365, and on each page a scripture passage is quoted—one verse for each day of the year. What’s unique about this calendar isn’t its coloring or calligraphed font. It’s not the quality of the paper either. The calendar, in fact, is quite cheaply made. Yet it’s special to me because embedded within each scripture my name appears. Each page has been adapted, customized, tailor-made to me, forcing me to personalize God’s truth and promises for myself and not just for the ambiguous world, out beyond me.

When you read the Bible, does it come alive to you? Are you able to see yourself it its pages, read yourself in its truth? Can you claim God’s promises for yourself on a daily basis? If you struggle as I have many times in my life, perhaps employing this method might offer you some hope today. Try it. Speak aloud these scriptures and insert your own unique name into the blanks (not just the pronoun “I”). Read them several times if you need to.

“For God so loved ______________ that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16, ESV).

“There is therefore now no condemnation for __________ who [is] in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, ESV).

“…in Christ _____________, [s]he is a new creation. The old has passed away [from her]; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV). 

___________ “will know the truth, and the truth will set [her] free” (John 8:32, ESV).

Scripture is powerful and effective. It’s alive and active (Hebrews 4:12). The difference between the words “word” and “world” may be only one letter, but God’s Word and His ways are the only true thing that can offer us lasting and eternal hope.

*Originally published by The Joyful Life Magazine.