If anyone should ask me, how they may read the Scriptures most profitably, I would advise him or her to do the following:

Read Prayerfully

Above all you should seek to have it settled in your own mind that God alone, by his Spirit, can teach you. Therefore—as God will be enquired of for blessings—it becomes you to seek God’s blessing before you read, and also while you read.

Read Persistently and Patiently

You should have it, moreover, settled in your mind that although the Holy Spirit is the best and sufficient teacher, yet this teacher does not always teach immediately when we desire it. And therefore, we may have to entreat him again and again for the explanation of certain passages. But he will surely teach us at last, if indeed we are seeking for light prayerfully, patiently, and with a view to the glory of God.

Five Reasons to Read the Whole Bible

It is of immense importance for the understanding of the Word of God, to read it in course (the whole Bible), so that we may read every day a portion of the Old and a portion of the New Testament, going on where we previously left off. This is important for a number of reasons:

1. You will understand the big story.

First, reading the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments at the same time, it throws light upon the connections. If you instead habitually select particular chapters, it will be utterly impossible ever to understand much of the Scriptures.

2. You will encounter many kinds of genres, and so not get bored.

Second, while we are in the body, we need a change even in spiritual things. And this change the Lord has graciously provided in the great variety which is to be found in his Word.

3. You glorify God by believing that everything he says is profitable for you.

Third, it leads to the glory of God. For if you leave out some chapters here and there, you’re practically saying that certain portions are better than others, or that there are certain parts of revealed truth unprofitable or unnecessary (2 Timothy 3:16).

4. You will better understand the meaning of individual passages.

Fourth, it may keep us, by the blessing of God, from erroneous views. Reading thus regularly through the Scriptures we are led to see the meaning of the whole, and also kept from laying too much stress upon certain favorite views.

5. You need to hear all of God’s words.

The Scriptures contain the whole revealed will of God, and therefore we ought to seek to read from time to time through the whole of that revealed will. There are many believers in our day, I fear, who have not read even once through the whole of the Scriptures. Yet in a few months, by reading only a few chapters every day they might accomplish it.

Read Thoughtfully

It is also of the greatest importance to meditate on what we read, so that perhaps a small portion of that which we have read—or if we have time, the whole—may be meditated upon in the course of the day. Or consider a small portion of a book, or an epistle, or a gospel every day, going through it regularly for meditation—without, however, suffering yourself to be brought into bondage by this plan.

This article is adapted from an excerpt titled “The Careful and Consecutive Reading of the Holy Scriptures” from George Muller’s book, Answers to Prayer.