Why You Need to Read the Bible (and 4 Tips to Help)
/For most of my life following Christ, I struggled to read my Bible. Frankly, I didn’t really want to. It felt boring, and sometimes a little difficult. I’d read it so I could check it off my to-do list. When I didn’t read, guilt would weigh on me.
Most of my growth came from Sunday sermons and Christian books I read- I survived on other people explaining God’s Word to me.
My problem? I didn’t understand the worth of Scripture! I didn’t understand how much my soul needs the Word of God to survive and thrive.
I saw my time in Scripture as a task to complete, a command to obey, something I should do because that’s what good Christians did.
I failed to see the Bible as spiritual nourishment for my heart.
God’s Word = Food
A huge turning point came for me when I heard some teaching comparing God’s Word to food. Just as our physical bodies need food to grow strong, to nourish our cells, and even to stay alive, so our souls require the Bible for sustenance.
If I stopped eating, my body would become weak and eventually it would shut down. As a Christian, if I ignore the Bible and don’t make time to read it, my soul will become weak and unable to function well. It would be crazy for me to choose to quit eating. And if you think about it, it’s crazy for a Christian not to nourish themselves with the word of God!
We actually see the food illustration used a few times in the Bible.
I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread. Job 23:12
How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth. Psalm 119:103
But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’.” Matthew 4:4
I love the words Jesus quotes in Matthew 4. We can’t survive on food only, we need the words of God!
One of the most poignant passages for me has been this verse in Jeremiah.
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. Jeremiah 15:16
Notice in this verse, Jeremiah says that God’s Word became a joy to him and the delight of his heart...but how did that happen?
He found the words of God and “ate” them. He read them and meditated on them. He learned them. Perhaps he memorized them.
He knew God’s words!
The point is, before God’s words delighted Jeremiah’s heart, he spent some time with them. I learned that I needed to do the same.
I asked God to give me a desire for His Word. I learned to love the Bible by reading it and thinking about it, by talking about it with my husband and friends, by memorizing it, and by listening to scripture-filled music.
The more I consistently filled my mind with God’s Word, the more I realized how much I need it! As I began to open my Bible more often, I began to look forward to reading it.
Guilt
Bible reading is a topic that often brings up feelings of guilt and shame for Christians. We’ve failed at Bible reading plans in the past, and we don’t want to try again and risk more failure. We’ve come across difficult verses or chapters and felt embarrassed that we don’t understand what they mean. We don’t want to admit how many times we’ve chosen naps, television, and social media instead of God’s Word. Bible reading feels like a chore we’ve been assigned, and even thinking that makes us feel guilty.
Does this sound like you?
I felt this way for a long time. But as I spent more time reading the Bible, I realized that it isn't a chore. It isn’t a task that earns me more favor with God. Reading Scripture is how I can know God! When I changed my focus from completing a task to trying to see God in His Word, everything changed.
The Bible is the story of who God is and how He has demonstrated His love to humans throughout history. If we approach our Bible reading with this mindset, it becomes a way to learn more about who God is and to grow closer to Him as we understand Him more.
Over the past few years as I’ve learned to love the Bible more and spent more time reading it, I’ve seen God work in my heart in ways He never has before. He has grown me and changed me to be more like Him, and He has used His Word to do it.
Read God’s Word, and watch Him change you!
Here are a few tips that have helped to spend more time in God’s Word.
Just read it! Just read. Fancy commentaries and Bible studies can be helpful, but they’re not necessary for reading God’s Word. You don’t need a brand new journal and a perfect pen to glean something from Scripture. A quiet house and a steaming cup of coffee are not necessary to have a productive devotional time. Don’t allow a desire for perfection to keep you from reading the Bible. God’s Word is effective even if it is read in a messy kitchen or at a noisy soccer practice!
Ask yourself, “What does this chapter/verse/passage teach me about God?” This helps me to focus in and find something to glean from what I’ve read. Sometimes I get a little too focused on myself, so asking this question helps me to remember that the Bible is all about who God is.
Use an audio Bible! I used to think that listening to an audio Bible didn’t really count as reading it, but someone pointed out to me that for many many years most people didn’t have access to their own Bible to read- they only heard it read aloud! (See Nehemiah 8 for an example.) Using an audio Bible has been so helpful for me on days when I don’t seem to have the time to read. I listen when I’m washing the dishes or folding laundry, or when I go on a walk. I’ve even found that I retain it better when I listen while doing a task with my hands. YouVersion is a free app that has an audio Bible. Go download it!
Don’t let a Bible reading plan stress you out and cause you to give up. Bible reading plans are great. I’ve found one that I love and have been using for a couple years. But too often I hear people say they haven’t been reading their Bibles because they’ve gotten too far behind in their reading plan and they can’t catch up. It doesn’t matter if you follow a plan perfectly! It doesn’t matter if you read through the whole Bible every single year. What matters is that you spend time in God’s Word and get to know Him more! Please don’t let the desire to complete a Bible reading plan perfectly paralyze you and stop you from spending regular time in Scripture. Just read something today!
I hope these suggestions are helpful to you, but mostly I hope you are encouraged to open your Bible today. I’d like to share a promise from the book of Isaiah:
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
When your Bible reading seems dry and boring, when you don’t feel like reading, when you don’t totally understand a passage, find hope in this promise. God’s Word won’t return empty! As you keep being faithful in reading, He will be faithful to change you more and more into His image.