In this Bible reading plan, you’ll discover how to detox the negative influences in your life, whether they be negative relationships, stress, busyness, or destructive life choices. By turning to God’s Word and seeking his guidance, you can experience spiritual renewal and find hope in his promises.
LCBC Church
Day 1
Scriptures: Proverbs 27:17, Proverbs 12:26, 1 Corinthians 15:33
Detoxing from Negative People
There’s a recurring theme in the Bible that can be summed up in the saying, “Love begets love.” It’s a way of saying that if we are well-loved (as God loves us), our natural response is to also be loving toward others. The opposite also tends to hold true. Hate, anger, and negativity produce more hate, anger, and negativity.
To put it in even simpler terms: “Your vibe attracts your tribe.” The power of influence tends to flow in both directions in a close-knit group of people. Your best and worst rub off on those in your inner circle, and theirs rub off on you.
If you want to grow in your faith and your relationship with God, then you have to take an honest inventory of the people surrounding you. As someone who is following Jesus, that can mean seeking out influences who are more experienced in their walk with God and can encourage you in yours.
Day 2
Scriptures: Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 6:31-33, Romans 12:2
Detoxing From Stress
In our hustle-bustle world, we constantly feel pressure to do more, achieve more, and fit in more. In the church world, we add our own pressure to be the “perfect Christian.” All together, it’s a recipe for stress and burnout and can cause us to distance ourselves from God.
But God doesn’t want that for us. His gift of salvation is free and full of love and grace. We don’t have to perform well or measure up to some ill-defined level of goodness to receive God’s promise of everlasting life with him. We just need to declare our belief in his son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
God doesn’t want us to feel the need to conform to this world’s expectations. We can live differently, knowing he is making everything new. He is our ever-present provider, always there to give comfort, peace, and joy. He just wants us to seek him and ask every day. No prayer is too small!
Day 3
Scriptures: Exodus 31:16-17, Mark 6:31, Matthew 11:28-29, Luke 10:38-42
Day 3 | Detoxing from Busyness
Life gets crazy. We have just 24 short hours in a day and what seems like umpteen thousand things to get done in those hours. How often have you left things – even important things like spending time with God – on the back burner as a result? You’re not alone.
God wants to be first in our lives. He expects to be placed at greater importance than mowing the lawn or baking for the school fundraiser. He understands how easily we can let life get so busy, which is why he showed us how to properly rest. After creating the world, God himself took a day for “Sabbath,” or intentional rest. As humans created in his image, God expects us to observe the Sabbath as well and take care of our physical and spiritual needs.
Our connection to God gives us the strength to run life’s race. Don’t let the busyness of the race give you permission to neglect taking Sabbath, connecting with God through his Word or prayer, and spending time with your community of believers. Like a cell phone running on less than 10%, you will eventually run out of power if you don’t plug in!
Day 4
Scriptures: Ephesians 5:15-16, Proverbs 3:5-6, James 1:5
Detoxing Destructive Life Choices
Did you know we make an average of 35,000 choices in a day? We decide things like when to get out of bed, what to wear, what to eat for breakfast…what to say to our kids, how many emails we reply to, and whether we’ll let that car pass ahead of us. Some of these examples may not be the most impactful choices of the day, but all of our choices say a lot about who we are and what we believe.
How do we discern the best choice when we’re faced with one? We stay connected to God — the God who knows everything. He is the wisest, and we can ask him directly for wisdom. He wants us to come to him first, always. He also places wise people in our lives whose advice can be incredibly valuable.
Ephesians 5:15-16 reminds us to be thoughtful about how we live our lives. We’re encouraged to avoid foolish behavior and instead embrace wisdom, using every opportunity we have to make a positive impact. Seek God first, lean on him and his wisdom, and seek advice from people who know better than you. That process will never lead you astray.
Day 5
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 10:14, Ephesians 5:5, Matthew 6:24
Detoxing Idols
What comes to your mind when you think of an idol? Probably a big statue with a bunch of people bowing around it. But in reality, the things in life that we tend to idolize are a lot more subtle—and can be a lot more insidious.
An idol is anything in our lives that we put in a higher position of importance than God. Intentionally or not, we can let things like wealth, a job, a diamond, a muscular body, technology, a celebrity, an ideal, become more valuable to our lives than God is.
It’s not wrong to enjoy such things. In fact, a lot of the things we tend to idolize can be great things — things God intended for our enrichment, like goals, exercise, and activism in our community. We just shouldn’t place them at a greater importance than our Creator. That’s when they become idols.
In a book called Remember Death, the author Matthew McCollough compares the good things of this world to appetizers at a banquet. They’re not meant to satisfy our hunger. Only stimulate it for the better things to come. The idols that this world encourages us to raise up to number one in our hearts destroy the opportunity for eternity with God — the best that is yet to come!