Bible Reading Q&A

Today’s post is going to be somewhat casual and hopefully many of you will find it encouraging and helpful! A while back I posted on my Instagram story asking you guys what specific things were holding you back from reading the Bible and making it a daily habit. I received a lot of questions, several of which overlapped with my previous post so I decided to choose the five most common questions and I will try to give you my best answers. I am by no means a Bible reading expert, but I do have a passion for helping others cultivate a deeper love for scripture. I have also had a lot of high’s and low’s during my process of learning to read the Bible and related to a lot of the comments I received. I understand how difficult reading the Bible can be, but I also know how wonderful and live giving it is and I want you to experience that as well! Below are the five questions I chose to write on.

I feel bad because it's been so long since I’ve read it and I feel shame over me:

There are two important things I want to address here. Firstly, let's talk about shame and how it’s defined and where the root cause of it comes from. Shame is a negative emotion that is caused by an awareness of wrongdoing. We see the idea of shame presented to us for the first time in Genesis 3:10 where Adam and Eve hid in the garden because they knew they committed a misdeed by eating the forbidden fruit and realized they were naked. Shame is something inevitable to us as sinful human beings born into a broken world. But the death and resurrection of Jesus is the only thing that can redeem us from the shame and guilt we feel due to our sins. Because He lives, we can come out of hiding, repent, and rest in His perfect presence. All of that being said, any shame that is felt due to reading scripture after a long time is a lie from the enemy. God would not place shame on your heart for wanting to come back to Him, no matter how long it has been.

I feel like Bible reading has to be done a certain way:

This is something I struggled with for the longest time and I still do. I touched on this particular point in my previous post but I will readdress a few things. First, it’s important to note that scripture itself never really mentions that Bible reading needs to look a specific way. The closest we get to the concept of a “quiet time” is Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Other places in scripture touch on it too: The Psalms teach us the importance of meditating on scripture, they tell us to seek the light of God and pursue it. Jesus’s posture of worship teaches us the importance of rising early to spend time with the Father. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God. All of these verses hold a common theme: They are here to direct our worship so that its central focus is on God the Father. Scripture tells us the importance of meditating on the Word, but it doesn't tell us that there is a specific way to do so. Scripture tells us the importance of rising early and spending time with the Father, but it doesn’t tell us that there is a specific routine we need to submit to in order to win God’s approval. Romans 8:1-2 tells us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. As I talked about in my previous post, we can’t let the image of perfection be the goal of our time with the Lord or the thing that drives us away. We can’t reach perfection without the blood of Jesus. Your focus should be on the transformation of your heart and taking your relationship with God deeper. One day your time with God might look like meditating on one verse and another day it might look like reading a whole chapter. Both mornings are just as valuable because you spent time with Him. That’s all God wants from you. He wants you to show up.

The Old Testament is hard and I don’t see God there:

I struggle to answer this question because I honestly see God so clearly in the Old Testament and it is my favorite part of the Bible, but it was a process to get there. So I’ll step back in time to when I had this question myself. For me, the turning point of seeing God moving in the Old Testament was once I had a good understanding of the New Testament. The New Testament gave me perspective on what Jesus did for us and educated me more fully on the Gospel message. I find that the best commentary for the Old Testament is the New Testament. But I totally understand how the Old Testament can seem scary and confusing if you are new to Bible reading. I encourage you to invest in several resources that helped me a lot with this! The Jesus Bible does a great job at showing you how Jesus is threaded through the entire Bible and helps you understand it better in more simplistic terms. Cross references are also my new favorite thing. Those are the really tiny Letters and numbers next to verses normally at the bottom of your Bible pages. What these do is essentially direct you to other places in the Bible that have the same or similar verses. This is especially cool when you are reading the Old Testament and see a cross reference in the New Testament!! Jesus is really all over the Old Testament and once you start to see that for yourself, you will just fall in love with scripture that much more.

Lack of motivation:

You can’t let motivation be the driving source for wanting to read your Bible. I know how hard this can be because we are so driven by our feelings. But guys, God’s word deserves better than to just be read when we feel like it. There will be days when you don’t feel like it. We are humans born into a sinful world and naturally our flesh will rebel of the things of God. Just like exercising, Bible reading is a spiritual muscle that we need to work every single day or else nothing will come from it. It requires intentionality and discipline. I can confidently tell you this because I see the results of it in my life right now. It is so important that we don’t let our human emotions & feelings water down the goodness & richness of God’s word. The truth on those pages remains the same even when we don’t feel it or see it in action. Regardless of what each day looks like, the truth written on those beautiful pages remains the same. It remains true. The goodness of His loving word is in no way dependent on our motivation to want to read it.

I don’t know where to start:

You start simply by showing up and opening up your Bible. As a friend once told me, consistency is everything. Just take it day by day and show up. You will slowly learn and figure out what style best suits you. It might not look like all the photos you see on Instagram or Pinterest, but your effort and investment is beautiful in the eyes of God. If you are looking for an actual place to start, I would suggest reading the book of John if you are a beginner. Bible reading plans are also SO helpful. But just remember that overall, God just wants you. He wants your attention and your heart. If it’s a mess, that is okay, He will take you in.

You are so loved.

Morgan