Questions and Answers | Reading the Bible
I want to get closer to God, but I feel lazy about reading the Bible. It seems like I’m reading it because I must and not because I want to. What should I do?
Although the law of God is sweeter than honey to the Psalmist (Ps. 19:10), our personal experience of reading Scripture can encounter periods of difficulty. Sometimes books of Scripture unfamiliar to us seem to have little relevance to our lives. Other times we encounter a stressful season that makes mental processing challenging. We also face warfare from the Enemy, who can blind us to the truth of God’s Word or snatch away its fruitfulness (Luke 8:12; 2 Cor. 4:4). We can have times when we become “dull of hearing” God speak (Heb. 3:15; 5:11).
To counter these challenges, we need discipline, empowered by the Spirit of God. Every day, we need to ask the Spirit to open our understanding of the Word of God (Ps. 119:18; Eph. 1:17–18). Today in the Word provides you with a daily portion of the Bible to read, meditate on, and pray about. A guide like the McCheyne Bible Reading Plan can also be helpful. It takes you through the entirety of the Old and New Testaments in a year. I also suggest going through one book of Scripture at a time with the help of a study Bible, reading one verse per day until you finish the entire book.
BY Dr. Eric C. Redmond
Dr. Eric C. Redmond serves as a professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and as associate pastor of adult ministries at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Ill. He is married to Pam and they have five children. He is the author of Say It! Celebrating Expository Preaching in the African American Tradition (Moody Publishers), Where Are All the Brothers? Straight Answers to Men's’ Questions about the Church (Crossway), a commentary on Jonah in the Christ-Centered Exposition Series (B&H Publishers), and a study guide on Ephesians in the Knowing the Bible series (Crossway).