Lately, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a lot of my friends about reading the Bible. One of my friends asked me for prayer to get in the Word; it’s a desire of her heart, but she has a problem carrying it out consistently. Another friend told me that he reads the Bible, but he often doesn’t understand it or get a lot out of it. Another one of my friends even went as far as saying he’s afraid of reading his Bible.
What is so important about the Bible in the life of a Christian?
The prospect of opening this huge book about spiritual things can often be intimidating — especially if you’re trying to do it on your own. Even if you’ve grown up knowing about the Bible, sometimes it’s hard to know whether you’re interpreting it correctly, and you can just feel lost. And if you didn’t grow up in the church, the Bible may even seem like some ancient, irrelevant book that’s impossible to understand, and is probably even full of errors (but who really knows?).
Yet getting in The Word consistently is the lifeblood of a thriving spiritual life. I honestly believe that the reason I’m so strong in my faith today is that I have developed a habit of diving into the word daily (I sometimes fail at this, but I’ll get to that later).
A.W. Tozer concedes simply that “The man who would truly know God must spend time with him.” Tozer is the author of the Christian classic Pursuit of God. Rev. James Snyder has reported that Tozer’s “regular habit was to sprawl on his study floor, facedown, and worship God.”
St. Augustine is often harrowed as a hero of the faith, and he knew how to meditate on (that is, think deeply about) the things of God. During Augustine’s lifetime, the Word had not been compiled into one “Bible,” but was only a collection of spiritual writings. (See this page for more on the history of the Bible.) And most people only had access to The Word by hearing it from others. Of these God-inspired writings, he claimed, “All the scriptures have only one intention: to help us understand the grace of Christ.”
And even President Ronald Reagan asserts that “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”
How can the Bible help me answer the deepest questions I have about life?
The questions of “Who is God?” “Who is man?” and “What is our purpose?” Are arguably the most essential questions for us as human beings to answer. But we often treat them like opinions rather than facts. Either the God of the Bible exists, or He doesn’t. If this God doesn’t exist, I’m not “entitled to my opinion,” I’m — hmm, what’s that word? Oh yeah — Wrong. If the God of the Bible exists, I’m right, and those who don’t believe in Him have the wrong answer.
In a world where most people don’t know how to define “truth,” and get so many mixed messages about these three essential questions, we can easily be swept up in lies, and instead of living according to the way things are, we will be living according to an illusion. The Word of God is the most true, most blatant, and (in the U.S.) most accessible way to seek the truth about God, ourselves, and the world around us.
If the Word of God is so essential to the Christian life, why don’t we read it?
Often, we don’t know how to read the Bible, or where to start. If you’re wondering where to start, see the next question.
One explanation I have is that, because Satan knows that this book is powerful to bring transformation in our lives and the lives of others, and ultimately because it honors God above all, the Enemy will do anything he can to keep us from reading the Bible. It doesn’t seem like a huge effort or battle to us, but that’s because sometimes all it takes for him to lure us away from wielding the power of the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17) is the pettiest little distraction.
Other times, we just don’t have the time (meaning we don’t make the time). This is merely a matter of priorities. If you don’t read your Bible daily, I wonder if cultivating your relationship with God is really a priority in your life. If God isn’t your priority, then, for all practical purposes, God isn’t technically “Lord” over your life.
See, here’s the thing about God. He’s an all-or-nothing guy. He wants all of you, or none of you. C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, writes from God’s standpoint on His relentless pursuit of everything we are:
Give Me all of you! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and “so much” of your work. I want you! All of you! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to Me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to Me, give yourself to Me and I will make of you a new self—-in My image. Give Me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.”
There are a lot of other excuses we may have for not reading the Word. I know I left a lot of them out. But I do know that none of these reasons relieve us of our responsibility to, as Tozer did, spend time with our God, cultivating a deeper relationship with our Father — and each of them will cause us to miss out on the joy of spending this precious time with the one who loves us and fulfills us most.
There are a lot of people and preoccupations that will fight for your time in the Word. Fight back.
How do I go about reading the Bible?
I split this question up into two parts: where to start reading, and how to go about it.
Where to start?
As I mentioned before, the Bible is not a traditional book, but a collection of writings about the same God and His followers throughout the course of history. It includes historical records, poetry, eyewitness accounts, laws of the Israelite nation, personal letters, prophecies (many of which have already been fulfilled), and biographies.
Although there are many aspects of the Bible, don’t feel intimidated. They all center around the same message about those three questions I mentioned earlier.
If you’ve never read the Bible before, I would suggest starting in Romans (if you need help finding it, there should be a Table of Contents at the front of the book). The gospel of John (the book between Luke and Acts), like Romans was actually written for people just like you! These books can be read from start to finish — but take your time, and if you have questions, ask a strong Christian in your life.
If you grew up in the church, or already know a little about God, I myself and others have gotten hooked on the Bible by starting in the Psalms. These books really bring out the intimate relationship between God and David, and it’s very relatable in terms of the emotions, questions, and circumstances you may face, and how God thinks/feels/relates to/fills up these aspects of your life.
If you’ve read a lot of the Bible, you may be starting to read books over again, or may not know how to read some of the more obscure books. I would suggest finding a buddy, getting a study guide for the book online or at a local Christian bookstore, and meeting up to talk about it and keep each other accountable for reading.
(Weekly accountability groups are to your faith like blood doping is to Lance Armstrong. They can help you no matter what stage of spiritual maturity you’re in or what book of the Bible you’re reading. I’m in one myself right now. Starting one is as simple as asking a friend or a person at your church if they’d want to join you.
Intimidated by the thought of meeting one-on-one with someone? Consider joining a small group through your local church. You can usually get away with just listening for a while until you’re comfortable and ready to contribute your own thoughts or questions.)
How to read?
As you read the Bible, engage your heart and mind with God. Ask questions to Him in your head, as if you were talking to a friend who could read your mind (at least that’s how I do it). Ask him something like, “God, what kind of truth can I take from this that will help me to obey you more?” or “What does this mean? God, can you help me understand?” With the Holy Spirit inside of you, God will empower you to extract some helpful nutrients to help you maintain and grow your relationship with Him.
Here’s a nifty little acrostic I found that might help you organize what kind of juicy morsels to pick out. It’s called PROAPT:
- Pray: Begin your time of study by praying for God to open your eyes and your heart to what the passage might be speaking to you today.
- Read: Read the passage you’ve chosen for the day.
- Observe: Simply observe, by asking the questions how, who, why, where, what & when, what is going on in the passage. Who are the characters? What are they doing? Where are they? When is this happening? What are they feeling and experiencing?
- Apply: Apply the passage to your life. What might this passage have to teach me today?
- Pray: Pray again that God would make what you have read have His life breathed into it.
- Tell: Tell someone about what you have learned in your Bible reading today.
Now that I’m in the habit of reading, I don’t even have to use this acrostic to know what I’m doing. Soon enough, if you stick with it, these steps will become second nature to you.
A personal story: Trying to get back into the Word after a hiatus
Back in middle school and high school, I got in the habit of setting aside a whole hour each night of reading the Word and engaging with God on my life, His world, and our relationship. Yet in recent years, I haven’t been so consistent. I haven’t had much structure in what I read; and though I usually read every day, it has been at inconsistent times of the day, and only for maybe 15-20 minutes on average. It’s as if I’ve gone from eating three full “spiritual meals” a day to a measly handful of trail mix — still good and full of nutrients, but not enough to sustain me, much less help me grow. And failing to consume the proper daily value of Scripture has definitely taken a toll on me — my life seems more confusing, my worldview makes less sense, and I struggle to see the big picture.
At the start of this year, I committed to reading the One-Year Plan. I’ve slowly started to slip behind on my reading (no surprise there), but I’ve kept hoping to set aside some time to just read a ton to catch up. But there are a few problems with this:
- This approach is stressful, and actually deters me from picking up such an intimidating task.
- Even when I do read a lot, I don’t get time to dig deep into what the Spirit wants to show me in each passage.
- In making it my goal to “catch up” rather than to simply fellowship with God, I’m defeating the purpose of reading my Bible. (See John 5:39-40)
More questions?
I hope this helps you on your journey to travel closer to the heart of God (though He is, in all reality, not far from each one of us — Acts 17:27). If you have further questions, I would love to hear them. You can either post them in the comments section or drop me a line.
I’m not the most disciplined person in the world, but I want to be someone who’s here as a resource for anyone who wants to know God better. We’re in this together!▲
