Five Tips for Personal Bible Reading
Reading the Bible can be an amazing adventure through exciting stories of God's work to accomplish His plan, purposes, and promises through His people. It can also be a confusing experience of names you can't understand and places you have never heard of. Yes, the Bible can be a little daunting to read, but it's worth it. If it's God's Word, then it's worth the effort that it takes to read and understand it.
Don Whitney says in this book, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life:
“In the Bible, God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The Bible unfolds the law of God to us and shows us how we've broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing substitute for breakers of God's law and how we repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible, we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how God wants us to live and what brings the most joy and satisfaction in life. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore, if we would know God and be godly, we must know the word of God intimately.”
So if this is what we can gain and gather from reading God's word, let me give you 5 tips for reading the Bible.
Get a good translation - The Bible was not written in English. It was originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and some Aramaic. Because of this, we have to read a Bible that is translated into our language, and in order to get as much as we can out of our reading, we need a translation that we can understand. Not all translations are equal. Without going into a lesson on Bible translations, let me just give you a few good options. The ESV is the translation that we use here at Arrowhead. The CSB (Christian Standard Bible) is another good translation that is written in modern English and is easy to read. For a more academic translation that reads a little more rigidly, the NASB (New American Standard Bible) is one that might be more your speed.
Get a pen and notepad - One good habit is to write out questions or truths that come to mind or things you want to ask your pastor about. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a physical pen and paper, but get something that will help you write down the things that pop out to you or confuse you. The real work at that point is to try to find those answers, or seek help from someone who is more knowledgeable of the Scriptures than yourself, so that you are able to learn and grow and not just walk away from reading in confusion.
Ask interpretive questions - As you read the Bible, do not be afraid to ask the Scriptures questions. Finding answers to your questions will help you understand the passage better. Ask it who, what, when, where, why, and how. This will give you a better idea of what you are reading. Matthew Harmon, in his book Asking the Right Questions: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Applying God's Word, provides some simple questions to ask every time we open our Bibles:
What do we learn about God?
What do we learn about people?
What do we learn about relating to God?
What do we learn about relating to others?
Ask application questions - This is the goal, right? To apply God's Word to change you and mold you to be more like Christ? To do this, we need to apply God's word to our lives. Harmon continues with these application questions:
What does God want me to understand?
What does God want me to believe?
What does God want me to desire?
What does God want me to do?
Find the time that works best for you - There are a lot of people who will suggest rising early in the morning to read and pray before we start our day. I wouldn’t disagree with them, unless they said that is the only proper time for personal Bible reading. It is a good time, but it's not the only time. Some of us struggle to rise early. Some are more alert in the evenings or at other times in the day. My advice would be to find the time and place that works best for you so you can be as consistent as you can be in reading and meditating on God's word.
To find additional help with your Bible reading, check out our Resources page with links to our Rhythms Journals and Online Bookstore.