Read your Bible. (No, really)
My quickstart guide
My husband, Carson, and I often joke that to be a real Baptist, you need to have gone through the baptistry at least twice.
We were both raised in the church, and we both made professions of faith at a young age…professions which, a few years later, we deemed insufficient and subsequently followed up with a second round of repentance and baptism. It was a literal “rinse and repeat” situation.
How did I know that the second time stuck? To be completely honest, I didn’t at the time (which is a story for another newsletter). But with the benefit of hindsight, I can tell now that the Holy Spirit began working in my heart in a tangible way around the time of my second dunk.
One seed that began to take root was a genuine love of the Bible. I had been raised in church and knew that I was supposed to be reading my Bible, but I hadn’t yet been able to establish any kind of habit around it. As I entered my high school years that changed, and I developed a Bible reading habit that has stayed with me (with minor interruptions) into adulthood.
My love for the Bible has only grown deeper as I’ve continued in the faith, and I want to share a few things that have helped me to cultivate that love.
But first…
Why does it matter?
Having a solid knowledge of the Bible is an essential element of the Christian walk. The benefits of spending time in scripture are endless: growing closer in your relationship with God and understanding the intricacies of the Biblical story are a few obvious ones.
It’s also paramount for Christians to be the experts on Biblical texts. The Bible is a complicated book, written by and for a culture that is foreign to the 21st century, and many will take advantage of those facts to misuse and misrepresent the information it contains. When you know what scripture says, you’ll be better equipped to parry these attacks from without and within.
My quickstart guide to Bible study
You don’t have to do things my way, but if you need some guidance, here’s what works for me and why.
1. Set supplemental texts aside.
I’m not saying you need to swear off devotionals, prayer books, or other supplements. I am saying that these things should be just that—supplements.
While there are certainly benefits to many of these resources, they should not replace the time you’re spending in the Word. In my experience, I’ve reaped the greatest benefits from scripture when I read more or less unaided.
I’ve also found it beneficial to step away from reading plans for my primary study, instead focusing my attention on one book of the Bible at a time. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a structured format, and the connections that many plans draw across scripture can be enlightening. However, I think you’ll gain a more robust and comprehensive picture of the story of scripture when you simply read it as it’s written.
2. Start small.
With 66 books and 1,189 chapters, choosing a place to start can be overwhelming. On at least one occasion, as a preteen, I subverted the “selection” step altogether by closing my eyes, opening to a random page, pointing to a spot, and starting there, reasoning that “since it’s in the Bible, God must want me to read this.” I probably ended up somewhere in Psalms, but you can imagine how this method could lead to some confusing and unproductive outcomes. I think it goes without saying that I don’t recommend it.
Instead, I would suggest choosing one book and aiming to read about a chapter at a time. You may find that this is too much, or not enough—after all, the books of the Bible comprise several different genres, and there’s a lot of variability in chapter length, content, and pacing. Still, I’ve found it to be an attainable goal that I can always modify on the fly if necessary.
3. Embrace the uncomfortable—or at least be willing to wrestle with it.
It doesn’t take much Old Testament reading to find a story that is uncomfortable, confusing, or straight-up weird. Violence, sexual misconduct, dishonesty, and all other manifestations of sin abound, and the Biblical authors, who were writing to an ancient Jewish audience, don’t always provide the exposition that modern readers are accustomed to.
It’s easy to avoid certain portions of scripture, like the OT in general, because you’re intimidated by the confusing and questionable elements. Instead of avoiding, I’d encourage you to prayerfully jump in and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your understanding.
4. Don’t worry too much about finding a “takeaway.”
Many popular Bible-reading methods stress the importance of finding “application” in each segment of scripture, but I think that this can be counterproductive to Bible study. While it’s certainly important to let our hearts and minds be softened by reading the Word, much of the Biblical text simply isn’t packageable into a nice, neat, 1-sentence takeaway.
The Bible is diverse, with genealogies, poetry, biography, narrative, letters, and a whole host of other types of literature, each written intentionally to serve a specific purpose. While it’s easy to find actionable steps in the instructional letters of Paul, it’s not so straightforward when you’re reading the blueprints for the tabernacle in Exodus.
As we know, I’m a perfectionist, and I spent many years thinking that I wasn’t reading scripture “right” because I couldn’t always figure out what I was supposed to do with the information I read. Once I realized that the Bible is not (contrary to the popular saying) an instruction manual, I was able to actually appreciate it for what it is: A God-breathed collection of texts that chronicle the history of God’s people, culminating in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ.
It’s my hope that these steps will help you begin the process of demystifying scripture. The Bible is truly a fascinating book with so much to teach us—we just have to be willing to let it.
Now, LMK:
What are your best Bible study tips? Let me know how you approach the rich text that is the Bible by leaving a comment below!
And a recommendation:
You didn’t think you would get away without a BibleProject recommendation, did you? (There’s no way I could pass that opportunity up.)
First, a YouTube video that talks about the Bible on a macro level:
And here’s a link to the accompanying podcast episode that digs in a little deeper:
If you don’t have Spotify, you can also listen here.
I'm like you - raised in the church - but my parents weren't too into the second dunking so it was just one and done for me 🤣. As for Bible reading tips - I enjoyed yours!! One approach that has helped me a lot over the years is the SOAP method. You may know it - but it stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. So you read a portion, observe whats there, apply that to your life, then commit it all to the Lord in prayer. It's simple, but used daily, really works.
I love point #4. We’re so utilitarian and pragmatic, we read the Bible like a how-to manual. But if the takeaway is time with God in his Word, we get that every time we open it in his presence, even if we don’t have three tidy little applications at the end of our time. I’ve also found audio Bibles helpful. Sometimes going for a walk or a run with an audio Bible hits me differently than sitting on the couch with my coffee and journal.