Do you ever find it difficult to read the Bible? Perhaps the biggest hurdle to reading the Bible isn’t finding the time to do it. The greatest battle for our Bible reading may be fought on the ground of our interest. Do we want to read the Bible?
We want to help you want to read the Bible.
So, here are six ways to increase your delight in Bible reading.
Six Ways to Increase Your Delight in Bible Reading
We hope after reading this article, you sprint off to open God’s Word, your curiosity aroused and faith revived, such that you’re eager to enjoy God’s Word.
1. Change Your Perspective
In order to delight in reading the Bible, you need a positive perspective about what you’re doing. In the words of Warren Wiersbe, “Bible reading is not an affliction, but an adventure.” Reading the Bible isn’t a drab habit for serious-minded Christians—it’s the primary way for all of us to know God better.
If you don’t love Bible reading, that may be because you don’t see it as it really is—a means to knowing God and hearing from God. The Bible may look like just another book, but it’s really a place where you and God meet. If you’re going to enjoy reading the Bible, you must believe that it is a supernatural activity—an activity in which God is pleased to reveal himself to you. The adventure of Bible reading is in seeking God and awaiting his revelation as you hear his Word and watch his Spirit apply it to your life.
The Bible says, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 NLT). Did you catch the last part of that verse? God rewards those who sincerely seek him. God loves to reveal himself to people who sincerely open his Word, desiring to hear what he has to say.
If you want to hear an awesome example of how God speaks through his Word, watch our podcast episode with Jaime Kimmett!
So, if you’re lacking desire for the Bible, one way to want to read it is to change your perspective. It’s not a chore; it’s an adventure. It’s not reading a book; it’s relating to a person—God himself.
2. Change Your Process
Another way to delight in reading the Bible has to do with how you do it. Consider this: Does the way you read your Bible work with your schedule, personality, and lifestyle? We can overemphasize such factors for sure, but we can also hinder our joy by not taking such factors into account.
For example, you may struggle to enjoy reading your Bible if you’re a mom of two toddlers and a newborn who is trying to finish a “Bible in a Year” reading plan that requires about 45 minutes of Bible reading per day. That’s absolutely understandable!
Rather, if you work through one book of the Bible, just two verses at a time, and allow yourself to think about those verses throughout the day, that may be a more delightful way to engage with the Bible in your season. Or you could play Scripture memory songs with your kids while you drive in the car and saturate yourself in God’s Word throughout the day in “bite sized” portions rather than in an intense lengthy study.
Or let’s say you have a carefree, type B and creative personality. You might also not enjoy a Bible in a Year reading plan that requires the same sort of reading every day. You might rather enjoy purchasing a note-taking Bible where you can reflect on specific Scriptures creatively in the margins of your Bible at your own pace. You may enjoy your Scripture reading more if you linger over passages and take a 5-year approach, rather than a 1-year approach.
At the same time, there are plenty of people who love routine and have done a Bible-in-a-year plan for 15 years straight!
Consider your process of reading the Bible. Does it make you feel rushed? Overwhelmed? Disinterested? How might you change your process to fuel delight in reading the Bible?
3. Remember to Pray!
You might have the right perspective and the right process for reading your Bible but still feel like it’s a chore.
One essential way you can grow your delight in God’s Word is through prayer. Prayer is the fancy term for talking with God. We read the Bible in conversation with God! The written Word of God is the Bible, but behind it is the Living Word—the Lord Jesus—who speaks to us through his written Word by the Holy Spirit.
Our delight in God’s Word increases the more we view our Bible reading as a means of relationship. As we hear God’s words, we become aware of his priorities and respond to what he reveals to us.
God’s Word might illuminate an area of our lives that needs to change, which we can then confess to him and ask for help. God’s Word might bring us to tears, highlighting a grief or sorrow we need to cast at Jesus’s feet and then ask to receive his comfort. God’s Word might bring us to think of a person in need, and we may be led to talk to God about how to serve or bless them.
God’s Word is alive and powerful because the God who authored it is alive and working. As you read God’s Word, talk to him about it! Respond to what he reveals in prayer, and you will find that he draws near to you (James 4:8a).
In the Bible, we read this wonderfully true reflection: “In your presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11 ESV). Your joy in reading God’s Word will increase as you see the time spent there as time in God’s presence, and one way to acknowledge and enjoy the presence of God is through prayer.
4. Find a Pal!
Let’s say you have a great Bible-reading routine, but you still desire to grow in your love for reading God’s Word.
Is there someone who shares your love for the Word of God or who is also curious about the Bible? J.C. Ryle said that “friendship doubles our joys.”
Having a friend alongside you who also is learning from the Bible will double your joy in your Bible reading. First, you will be motivated to read it, and it becomes a point of connection between you and that friend and an opportunity for you two to grow in your love of God together. Second, reading with a friend will afford you their thoughts and reflections as well as your own. Rather than having only your own thoughts on a passage, your study will be enriched by your friend’s reflections as well.
Who in your life could you ask to read the Bible with you? Your invitation may just be something they are longing for too!
To increase your delight in reading the Bible, start doing it with a friend.
5. Ask for Power
Despite all our efforts, sometimes our hearts still are resistant to our Bibles. Maybe we’re feeling burdened by grief, spiritually dry, or weary. Or maybe we just are consumed by the delights of this world, which are choking out our delight for God’s Word (Luke 8:14).
One of the best ways to delight in God’s Word is to plead with God to help you delight in it. An awesome way to do this is to read through Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible, and it is all about God’s Word. Many times in that psalm, you will hear the psalmist earnestly cry for God’s help to love God’s Word. You can pray along with the psalmist, asking God to help you love his Word.
If you want more reason to dive into Psalm 119, listen to our podcast episode titled, The Story Behind the Band Stillcreek and the Incredible Treasure of Psalm 119.
Ask God to rekindle delight in him and his Word in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
6. Remember This Is About a Person
The primary way to love God’s Word is to love God himself. The more you know God’s Word, the more you’ll come to love God, and the more you love God, the more you’ll want to hear his Word.
The God of the Bible is good and loving, according to his own revelation. His love was most fully demonstrated to us in the giving of his Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice for our sins (John 3:16; 1 John 3:16). God’s love is made clear to us in his plan to rescue us from the wrath we deserve in order to bring us into a loving relationship with him, at a cost only to himself. He freely offers his salvation, resulting in eternal life with him, to anyone who trusts in him and accepts the good news of his salvation by faith (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 6:23-24).
Everyone who believes in Jesus is born again into the kingdom of God as a child of God, and their loving relationship with God begins. To know God intimately is eternal life, and we get to experience that now (John 17:3). When Jesus ascended to Heaven, he sent his Spirit to walk with us, live in us, and help us know him (John 14:16-17).
The sure way to love God’s Word is to respond to the love that God has revealed he has for you in his Word. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and begin the adventure of knowing God. You will come to love him, and as you long to know him more, you will long for his voice.
Without a genuine relationship with Jesus, we can’t love God’s Word. But when we have a genuine relationship with Jesus, our love for him compels us to open his Word and hear his voice (John 10:27).
Delight in Discovering God’s Word
How do you delight in reading the Bible? Well, first consider whether you know the living Word, Jesus, who is speaking in his written Word. Then, consider your perspective. Do you see your Bible reading as a means of knowing him? As you read, are you talking to him in prayer?
If as you read the Bible, you’re eager to know God better, consider modifying your Bible reading plan, inviting a friend to read it with you, and most of all, asking God to give you fresh delight as you listen to his Word.