Why read the Bible? Well, there are a plethora of reasons why reading the Bible is important, beneficial, and just plain good for your heart as a Jesus follower. Learning how to read and study the Bible is a continuous journey for a disciple. It’s a practice that is central to the journey of the Christian. The two that have most helped me in my walk and blessed my life are getting to know the character and nature of God and as a way of being continually reminded of the promises of God.
Getting to know the character and nature of God as I read my Bible has helped shape my relationship with him. I grew up with a very legalistic understanding of who God was. The legalistic teaching and discipleship of my youth shaped how I engaged Jesus and how I lived my life. The result was that I always thought God was mad at me for something and that I wasn’t enough. As I established a new relationship with a mentor and she began teaching me about the character and nature of God and about different ways to read my Bible, that all changed. One time she told me she just read her Bible for fun!! As I started to do that along with my study, I found that the true stories at the Bible were woven together in a way that allowed me to see the character and nature of God in ways that I hadn’t before. I hadn’t really seen the connectedness as I would study and read one chapter at a time or just a segment of verses. Picking up my Bible and reading the entire book of John in an afternoon like I would read several chapters of a novel gave me a bird’s eye view and I was able to see how it all connects and how God loves and cares for His people. It changed who I thought God was.
When you’re reading a novel, if you’re a reader, you tend to relate to a specific character. The more I read the Bible, the more I find there are characters and situations that I relate to. The great thing about the Bible is the characters are real life people. They did real life things and had real life encounters with God. I get to see how the Father dealt with them. And that’s how I know how He will deal with and care for me. Matthew says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[?” (Matt 6:26-27) I attend BSF and last night our teacher had an amazing analogy from this scripture. As a teacher, I often taught my kids to make connections between the text they are reading and things they already know. Our teacher did that last night. She talked about a woodpecker that they had in their yard. They had learned about woodpeckers and learned that God had created them for the specific job they do. God formed their brain in a different way and secured their brain in their skull in a different way than our human brains. He even made their tongues come out and completely wrap around their head and hold it tight! So many details have gone into how God created a single bird. As I read the Bible, I can see those details and how he cares for us. When I can see those details in scripture, it opens my eyes to the details of how he’s caring for me and those around me. Reading the Bible has allowed me to see a God who is loving who cares for me deeply and who’s going to hold me accountable for my actions but from the heart of grace.
Paul states in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Reading the Bible has embedded scripture on my heart and mind that I can grab hold of whenever I have an anxious thought. Scripture memory is excellent. I do it and I recommend it. However, it doesn’t require you to have chapter and verse in order to take every thought captive. Whenever I’m in a difficult situation that is causing me anxiety, because I have read the Bible, I know documented events and promises from the Bible and I can think back to one of them and I can grab hold of that story and think about the way God provided and strengthened that individual. God makes promises to His people as they experience situations in the Bible. I can grab hold of those promises. I feel God’s promises are part of our playbook for how we live our life. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” If we honestly believed that God would never leave us nor forsake us, would we live our day-to-day life differently? Of course we would! When we can constantly remind ourselves of promises like that that we’ve grabbed hold of from reading the Bible, it changes how we live out our day. More empowered by the promises of God when I’m reading about the promises of God. That reading connects me back to them on a consistent basis. It’s the playbook for how to treat other people. When we’re reading the Bible and we see how Jesus, treated people and we know that we’re called to be like Jesus those scriptures that we read through in the morning go into our day and shape how we engage others. And let me tell you sometimes they don’t shape as much as convict me in the midst of a situation. His promises are real. When we are able to connect back to them on a daily basis as we read our Bible we have them at the ready throughout the day.
May your Bible reading encourage you as much as it’s encouraged me. I know it will. If you already have a rhythm in your day that includes reading the Bible, great! Bring someone along with you. Encourage someone else. If you don’t yet have that rhythm, take the next 30 days, read your Bible each day, and wait expectantly as you see how God cares for you and in having scripture fresh on your heart each day; changes your heart.