My journey through the Bible continues, and this month I found myself immersed in the book of Exodus.

If I’m being honest, the first five books of the Bible have never been my favorites. For years, I looked at Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as books I needed to get through rather than books I wanted to read. They seemed packed with history, laws, names I couldn’t pronounce, and details that felt far removed from my everyday life.

I knew they were important because they’re God’s Word, but I didn’t always understand why they mattered so much.

This time was different.

Instead of rushing through my reading just to stay on schedule, I slowed down. I started reading Scripture out loud. I prayed before I opened my Bible and asked God to show me His heart instead of simply helping me finish another chapter.

That simple change transformed everything.

If you’re wondering what sparked this journey, after months of looking for the “perfect” Bible study (which, let’s be honest, probably doesn’t exist), I finally settled on The Daily Grace Co. Year in the Bible study. More importantly, I changed my approach. I stopped reading just to check a box and started reading because I genuinely wanted to know God better.

As I made my way through Exodus, I expected to focus on Moses, Pharaoh, the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and Israel’s escape from Egypt.

Instead, I found myself seeing something else entirely.

I kept seeing God.

Not just what He was doing, but who He is.

That became the theme of Exodus for me.

God Is God

One truth kept rising to the surface over and over again.

There is no one like Him.

When I reached the account of the plagues, I noticed something I had never really paid attention to before. Each plague wasn’t random. God was confronting something the Egyptians worshiped. The Nile, the sun, livestock, fertility—even Pharaoh himself held religious significance in Egypt.

God wasn’t just sending disasters.

He was making a statement.

Every plague declared that He alone is God.

Later, when we read the First Commandment – “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3) – it carries even more weight because we’ve already watched Him prove exactly why.

The funny thing is, we don’t worship golden calves or statues today.

At least most of us don’t.

But we can be just as guilty of putting other things ahead of God. Careers. Money. Relationships. Success. Comfort. Approval from other people. Sometimes we even put ourselves on that throne.

We look to those things to give us peace, purpose, security, or identity, but eventually they all disappoint us.

Only God can fill that place.

Exodus reminded me that God doesn’t ask for first place because He’s insecure. He asks for first place because He knows nothing else will ever satisfy the deepest parts of our hearts.

God Is Full of Grace

One of the things people often talk about in Exodus is how God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But this time, something else stood out to me:

Pharaoh hardened his own heart over and over before we ever read that God hardened it.

God kept giving him opportunities to repent.

He sent Moses again and again. He warned him repeatedly. He demonstrated miracle after miracle. God could have ended the whole situation instantly. Instead, He showed incredible patience.

Psalm 103:8 says,

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.”

I saw that verse lived out all through Exodus. God’s grace doesn’t mean He overlooks sin. It means He patiently gives people every opportunity to turn back to Him.

What an incredible picture of His mercy!

God Is the Most Patient Father

I’ll admit it. The Israelites drove me crazy.

God parts the Red Sea. They complain.

He provides food from heaven. They complain.

He gives them water from a rock. They complain.

He leads them with a pillar of cloud during the day and fire at night. They still complain.

More than once I caught myself thinking, Seriously? After everything you’ve seen, how could you possibly doubt God now?

Then the Holy Spirit gently turned that question back toward me.

How many times has God faithfully provided for me…only for me to worry about the very next problem? How many prayers has He answered that I’ve already forgotten? How many times has He proven Himself faithful, only for fear to creep back in anyway?

Ouch.

The Israelites aren’t nearly as different from us as we’d like to believe. Their story is our story. And yet, despite all their grumbling, God kept providing.

He fed them.

He guided them.

He protected them.

He never stopped being faithful, even when they weren’t. That’s not because their behavior deserved it. It’s because that’s who God is.

God Keeps His Promises

One of the saddest moments in Exodus happens after God has done so much for His people.

They make a golden calf.

After witnessing miracle after miracle, they still turn toward an idol. That part has always amazed me. But this time I found myself paying closer attention to God’s response. He was done. He wanted to destroy them. Be done with the whole lot of them and start over again.

But thank God for Moses! Moses intercedes for the people, reminding God of the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God remains faithful to what He promised.

What struck me wasn’t Israel’s failure; it was God’s consistency.

People change.

Circumstances change.

Our emotions change.

God never changes.

Numbers 23:19 reminds us that God does not lie or change His mind like people do. His promises don’t depend on our perfection. They depend on His character.

And His character has never changed – not then, not now, and not ever.

The Tabernacle Changed Everything for Me

I’ll admit something else.

When I used to reach the chapters describing the Tabernacle, my eyes glazed over a little.

Measurements.

Fabric.

Wood.

Gold.

Lampstands.

Priestly garments.

It all felt repetitive. This time, though, I slowed down enough to ask why every detail mattered. The answer completely changed how I viewed those chapters.

God wasn’t giving architectural instructions because He cared about construction. He cared about His presence.

Exodus 25:8 says,

“They are to make a sanctuary for Me so that I may dwell among them.”

That verse stopped me.

The Tabernacle wasn’t really about a building. It was about relationship. God wanted to be with His people. Even more beautiful is realizing that every part of the Tabernacle points us toward Jesus.

Jesus became the perfect sacrifice.

Jesus fulfilled what the sacrificial system could never permanently accomplish. Because of Him, we don’t have to approach God through an earthly tabernacle anymore.

The veil has been torn.

The way has been opened.

We have direct access to our Heavenly Father.

A Personal Conviction

As I studied the Tabernacle, God gently impressed something on my heart that I honestly wasn’t expecting.

He doesn’t simply want to dwell among His people. He wants to dwell within His people.

I’ve read 1 Corinthians 6:19 many times:

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?”

I’ve always understood those words. This time, though, they settled deep in my heart. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel guilt about not always taking care of my body: I felt gratitude.

If the Holy Spirit lives in me, then I want to honor Him, not because I’m trying to earn His love, but because I’ve already received it. It shifted my perspective completely. Taking care of myself became less about losing weight or looking different and more about being a good steward of what God has entrusted to me.

That was a beautiful conviction.

Falling in Love with God’s Word

Somewhere during my study of Exodus, I did something that might sound a little strange.

I hugged my Bible.

I know. It sounds silly. But I couldn’t help it. I’ve fallen in love with God’s Word in a way I never expected. The more I read, the more I want to read. The more I learn, the more I realize there is still so much to discover. One morning during my study, I had the sweetest thought settle into my heart.

It was almost as if the Lord whispered,

“Daughter, it is My delight to share My heart with you.”

I sat there for a long time just thinking about that. And then I realized something. That invitation wasn’t just for me. It’s for every one of us. God delights in revealing Himself to His children. He isn’t hiding. He’s inviting. Every page of Scripture reveals more of His character, His love, His faithfulness, and His heart.

Exodus reminded me of that over and over again.

And now…

I’m moving on to Leviticus.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually excited to see what God has waiting for me there.

I wanted to share something from my heart.

This year, I’ve been intentionally reading through the Bible using a Bible-in-a-year study from The Daily Grace Co. I’ve mentioned it here before, but this experience has been eye-opening. It’s the first time I’ve approached reading the Bible with this much intention. I also made a decision that has changed everything for me: instead of reading silently, I’ve started reading the Bible out loud.

As an ADHD reader, I tend to skim without realizing it. Sometimes I gloss over details, miss important information, or create confusion simply because my eyes move faster than my brain processes the words. Reading Genesis out loud slowed me down. It forced me to pay attention. And while there wasn’t a lot of brand-new information in the book itself, hearing the words spoken brought Scripture to life in a way I hadn’t experienced before.

Along the way, I discovered a few things.

Now, some of you may read this and think, “Sheesh, for someone who’s been a Christian for over 30 years, this is Christianity 101.” And honestly? That’s fair.

But I’ve always believed there’s value in going back to the simple things. Sometimes we need to return to the beginning so we can see something we’ve missed before.

I’ve done this my whole life. Whenever I finish a TV series or a movie franchise, I immediately want to start over and watch it again. Once I know the ending, I notice connections, details, and foreshadowing I completely missed the first time around. I do the same thing with books.

The Bible is no different.

I know how the story ends. I know Jesus wins. I know we win.

Yet I love going back to where it all started—or more accurately, where God chose for us to begin learning about Him. God has always existed, so there is no beginning to go back to. (My finite brain still struggles to comprehend that.)

So that’s what I’m doing in this season.

Relearning.

Rediscovering.

Getting to know my Heavenly Father on a deeper level than ever before.

Here are a few things that stood out to me as I read through Genesis.

1. God is the ultimate Creator.

I look at the trees and think, “God made that.”

I look at the grass beneath my feet and remember that God put it there.

The sky bursts with brilliant yellows, reds, and oranges in the morning, shines blue throughout the day, and fades into violet at night because He said it should. The moon follows its appointed course because God commanded it. Every star sits exactly where He placed it.

And He did it all simply by speaking.

That amazes me.

2. God showed us how powerful words are.

See point number one.

Words have power.

God spoke creation into existence. He could have chosen any method He wanted, but He chose words.

I believe that’s one reason He gave us His Word. When we speak God’s Word, we’re not repeating empty phrases. We’re speaking truth, life, and power.

3. God keeps His promises.

One thing I loved about Genesis was the repetition.

God gave promises to Abraham.

Then He reminded Abraham of those promises.

Then He repeated them to Isaac.

Then He repeated them again to Jacob.

Over and over, I saw God reaffirm what He had already said.

Not because He forgot, but because He wanted them to remember.

From the very beginning, God demonstrated that He keeps every promise He makes.

4. God’s promises are still alive today.

When God promised Abraham blessing, increase, and descendants, He established a covenant that extended beyond Abraham himself.

That’s us.

That’s you and me.

Even if we aren’t part of Abraham’s physical family line, we’ve been grafted into God’s family through Jesus. Those promises still matter. They still carry weight. They still work because God hasn’t changed.

5. God turns what was meant for harm into good.

I’ve read Joseph’s story countless times, but this time something hit differently.

His brothers wanted to destroy him.

Instead, God used every betrayal, every setback, every unfair circumstance, and every delay to position Joseph exactly where he needed to be.

What others intended for evil, God used to save an entire nation from starvation.

And it didn’t happen overnight.

Joseph’s story unfolded over years.

He started as a cocky teenager with big dreams and eventually became second only to Pharaoh himself.

God was working the entire time, even when Joseph couldn’t see it.

6. God uses imperfect people.

This one encouraged me more than I can explain.

Abraham came from a family that worshiped idols.

Isaac repeated some of his father’s mistakes and lied about his wife.

Jacob built a reputation on deception.

Joseph struggled with pride.

None of them were perfect.

Yet none of their flaws stopped God from calling them, blessing them, protecting them, providing for them, or fulfilling His promises through them.

Genesis reminds me that God doesn’t wait for perfect people.

If He did, none of us would qualify.

As I finished Genesis, I realized I learned far more than facts about creation, covenants, and patriarchs. I learned something about the heart of God.

I saw His faithfulness.

I saw His patience.

I saw His mercy.

I saw His desire to keep pursuing people even when they stumble, fail, doubt, and make a mess of things.

Most of all, I saw a God who keeps His word.

And honestly, that makes me excited.

I’m excited for this season of learning, growing, and rediscovering Scripture with fresh eyes. I’m excited to slow down and really listen. And I’m excited to see what God reveals as I continue this journey.

Next up is Exodus.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for letting me share what’s on my heart. I think I may turn this into a series and pop on here each time I finish a book of the Bible to talk about what I’ve learned, what challenged me, and how God used it to grow my faith.

So here’s to Genesis—the first book of the Bible and the first post in what may become a very meaningful series.