The Bible is the most wonderful book to read. It is the living and active Word of God that lights your path as you travel the road. It is food for your soul. It is the compass that points true north and leads you to rich places. There’s no better way you can invest your time than by reading your Bible.
That’s not to say the Bible isn’t difficult. The Bible can be tough to read. It has a lot of names and places that are hard to pronounce and is set in a different time and culture from our own. John Bunyan commented on this difficulty and the state of his heart in reading: “I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole Bible has been to me as dry as a stick; or rather, my heart has been so dead and dry unto it that I could not conceive the least dram of refreshment.” How shall we overcome?
We take up and read. One practical help to read your Bible better is to make sure you have some consistent, undistracted time for the sole purpose of reading your Bible. Two enemies, such as busyness and distraction, rise up against you to fight and compete for this time. Don’t let down your guard! Make a stand and hold the line! Fight to create space where you can read and digest and worship over God’s Word. We all have things to do, with hurried schedules and divided attentions, but this is food for your soul. Man does not live on bread alone but by the very Word of God. God has prepared a wonderful meal for you. Make and take the time to taste and savor His goodness in His Word.
Another help to reading your Bible better is to pray before, during, and after you read. This is part of fighting the busyness and distractions. Our fidgety hearts want to wander and we need His supernatural help to read His supernatural book. What are some beneficial points to pray? We ask Him to open our eyes, that we may see wondrous things in His Word. We ask for understanding to know and keep His Word and He would lead us in His path. We ask Him to turn our eyes from worthless things and that we would have life in all His ways. If we want lasting, spiritual benefits from reading His Word, we must pray and ask for His help.
“Christ is the living Bible; we may read much of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We shall study no other book when we come to heaven,” said Thomas Manton. All of our Bible reading leads us to our Lord and Savior, Jesus. All the Scriptures show His glory and grace. We can have a closer walk, deeper love, and stronger obedience to Him through reading His Word, with consistent and undistracted time, and bathing our reading in prayer. His Word is His gift to us.