Reading through My Bible: Year 1 Pandemic Prayers

By Jennifer Fichter-Tulipano

During quarantine, reading became a means of escape and reignited a deep passion for Bible study in Jennifer Fichter-Tulipano's life. It was during this time that her blog, AppleofHisEye2020.com, was founded. The purpose of that blog, to document her experience of reading the Bible every day for one year, has evolved into this book.

Jennifer prays that by sharing this experience with you, she will create a ripple effect in spreading the message to others, aiding God's plan for His people and continuing Christ's mission to reach others in every single city, in every single nation, every single day.

In Reading through My Bible: Year 1; Pandemic Prayers, you will learn about the ways in which the power of prayer, developed through daily Bible reading, helped Jennifer through both the global health pandemic and personal crisis. Through Jennifer's experience, you will be given opportunities for self-reflection on your individual walk with God as well as practical applications for reading through your Bible and studying specific scriptures in today's demanding world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887513331

Book preview

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Reading through My Bible

Year 1 Pandemic Prayers

Jennifer Fichter-Tulipano

Copyright © 2023 by Jennifer Fichter-Tulipano

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All scriptures, unless otherwise noted, have been taken from the NLT.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

About the Author

To God, above all, for His gentle spirit and divine inspiration.

To Him be the glory and honor in all that I do.

To my children, Marc, Mia, and Michael—my three Ms, my living miracles.

I love you with all my heart, soul, and being.

You are my grandest gifts from the Lord.

I am blessed to call you mine.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to

harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

—Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Preface

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

—Matthew 28:19 (AMP)

Throughout my lifetime, there have been countless opportunities enabling me to influence the lives of others with the gift of communication God has given me. By trade, I am a teacher and a state-certified school counselor. With two years of experience in public education and fifteen years of experience in Catholic education, more than 2,500 students have graced my classroom with their inquisitive minds, providing an audience to speak to.

In civilian life, I am the single mother of three precious children: two witty, athletic sons and a bright, sassy daughter. With two amazing parents of my own, I am the firstborn of nine children with two brothers, five biological sisters, and one sister adopted in 2014. Also, I am an aunt to three nieces and five nephews and godmother to three of them.

I’m an in-law, a goddaughter, a niece, a cousin, a colleague, and a friend. Married for fourteen years to my high school sweetheart, it was only recently I’d obtained a divorce. As my former husband is the father of my children, I do pray that he will welcome God into his heart and mind more fully someday.

God has called me to reach beyond this inner circle.

During quarantine, reading became a means of escape and reignited a deep passion for Bible study. Hence, my blog, AppleofHisEye2020.com, was founded with the purpose of documenting my experience of reading the Bible every day for one year.

The blog has evolved into this book.

I pray sharing this experience with you will create a ripple effect in spreading the message to others, aiding Christ’s mission to reach every city, every nation, every day.

Chapter 1

Quarantine and Read

For he will rescue you from every trap and save you from every disease.

—Psalm 91:3

August 2020

COVID-19 lockdown was hard—all eighty-five days of it.

Daily responsibilities included but were not limited to the following:

Juggling the kids’ three different zoom schedules and keeping track of all assignments.

Teaching five of my own classes remotely.

Cooking and cleaning up after serving three to four meals.

Demanding each of five family members disrobe as they enter our home and laundering all items of clothing.

Exercise is essential, hence our daily three-to-five-mile walk throughout the neighborhood.

Checking in on our family members to make sure everyone was healthy and coping, and taking appropriate action if they were not.

Staying informed by watching the news for updates and turning it off to avoid media toxicity.

Wiping down and disinfecting all surfaces on a nightly basis.

Dropping to my knees at any given moment, thanking God for His hedge of protection around my family and friends, and immersing myself in Philippians 4:6–7.

During quiet momentary lulls, I would find no respite. The weight of these at-home tasks was growing too heavy. At night, after bedtime prayers and tuck-ins came some time for me to put my feet up with books that had been asking to be read for years. Looking back, it’s astonishing that there was any time to read. On the flip side, all there really was was time!

Reading provided sanity during quarantine. Amidst lesson planning, laundry, scrubbing pots, phone calls, texts, and emails, it was the one thing keeping me grounded, the only thing preventing me from unraveling into a heap of mush. I learned to turn my worries into prayers.

Scriptures offered encouragement, God’s promises, food for my soul. More importantly, this new habit brightened the path to the most important book of all—the Holy Bible.

It was April 2020. While reading about Saint Paul and his missionary exploits, the thought struck me: I hadn’t opened my own personal Bible in over a year.

In retrospect, it seems after downloading a Bible app onto my phone, I’d been relying on its Word of the Day, a single verse of scripture, as my daily serving of God’s Word.

Was this enough? Had I been skimping, thereby cheating myself?

Now please understand. I still cherish and utilize the Bible app daily. It has the capability to track and display one’s devotion and growth.

Here are my results of the last two years:

Longest streaks: 197 days

Consecutive weeks: 90

January 2020 to date: 212 of 217 days

Completed plans: 30

While I’m pleased with those stats, once I opened my personal Bible, I became immersed in it.

An early morning, five-minute check-in with God might turn into a 20–30-minute complete daily devotion.

Three weeks into quarantine, after reopening my heart to His Word, I received