Life is busy. Who has time to read the Bible? It just seems like one more thing to do. But it’s not. There are three really good reasons you should read God’s Word.
WHY?
1. Relationship Building with God
Like any relationship, if you don’t spend nurture it, it will not be all that you want it to be. The same is true with your relationship with God. God’s Word is Him talking to you. So, if you never take time to find out what He has to say, you won’t know Him well at all. Reading His Word allows you to fellowship with Him and learn who He is and what His thoughts are about you, others, or any topic.
2. Familiarize Yourself
Your Bible should be used as your “guide for life” because all of the answers you are searching for in life can be found in it. This means it is not just a “religious” text. In order to get the answers, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with what’s in it. You do this by simply reading it.
3. It Helps the Holy Spirit to Help You
As you read, you will start to become familiar with scriptures, principles, stories, topics and more. As a result of this exposure, the Holy Spirit can bring the passages you have read back to your remembrance at a later date when you need.
HOW?
1. Use a Translation you understand
Choose a Bible translation that is easy for you to understand. (The goal is not to impress others by quoting scriptures you don’t know the meaning of. The goal is for you to apply God’s Word to your life and you can’t do that if you don’t know what He’s saying to you.)
2. Acknowledge the Holy Spirit
One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is He is a Teacher. Before you start reading, acknowledge Him in this role by praying, “Holy Spirit - Help me to hear what the Father God and the Lord Jesus is saying to me today. Open my understanding so that I receive what you are saying in Your Word. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
3. Read Daily for a Short Period of Time
Read in small chunks. Spend no more than 15 minutes reading per day. Mark your place where you stopped so you can pick back up where you left off the next day. (The goal is consistency. Make a decision to read for the amount of time that you know you will be consistent. It’s better to read 10 minutes every day than to read 2 hours in one setting and not pick it back up for 3 weeks.)
Start in the New Testament with Matthew and read verse by verse until right before Revelations and then start back over with Matthew and repeat. There’s no rush in how long this takes you. (HINT: If you start with Matthew 1:18, you’ll bypass all the “begats” which aren’t necessary to read right now. You can end right before Revelations since you will need to study Revelations instead of just read it because there’s a lot of symbolism in it that you may not understand. You will only expand to the Old Testament once you have a firm grasp of the New Testament.)
4. Ask yourself Questions after your reading is complete
Is there any example for me to follow?
Is there any error I should avoid?
Is there a promise or provision for me to proclaim?
Is there any instruction for me to obey?
Was there something that grabbed my attention or was highlighted that stopped me while I was reading? (If so, this was the Holy Spirit bringing it to your attention.)
5. Write in a Journal
Write down any revelations that are important to you in a physical or digital diary or notebook so you can refer to it later. Be sure to put the date on your journal entry.
Resources:
How to Study the Bible: Feeding Your Faith and Starving Your Doubt to Death
1 Timothy 4:13
John 14:26
