Today, we are finishing the nine things to do before you even open your Bible to read it. These approaches come from a book called Before you Open your Bible by Matt Smethurst. Matt is the pastor of River City Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia and an editor for the Gospel Coalition.
Reading your Bible on your own is a spiritual discipline that every believer should be developing and improving. Jesus said abide or live in my Word. The Bible is all about Jesus. We can find him from the beginning in Genesis to the end in Revelation.
1. Approach your Bible PRAYERFULLY
Don’t rush into your Bible reading with your own agenda, your own thoughts and plans.
2. Approach your Bible HUMBLY
Genesis 3 tells us that God was in the habit of walking in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. Before the fall and sin separated man from God, the Creator walked and talked with Adam and Eve. It says they heard God moving through the garden and they hid themselves because they were afraid.
3. Approach your Bible DESPERATELY
Do you want reading God’s word to be a joy and delight? God wants us to desperately desire his word. He doesn’t want us to snack on the world’s wisdom and then be too full of thoughts and ideas for His word.
4. Approach your Bible STUDIOUSLY
Do you think of yourself as a theologian? Everyone has thoughts and opinions about God, even those who say he doesn’t exist. If you want to know who God really is, you become a student of God. You study what He says about Himself, the universe and the people He created.
5. Approach your Bible OBEDIENTLY
Fear, walk, love, serve, keep, obey. Fear and love have to do with our thoughts and emotions. Walk, serve, keep, and obey are all about our actions. God wants your heart and your obedience.
Why? Because this is for your own good. God created us to follow His directions and stay within the boundaries He set for us.
6. Approach your Bible JOYFULLY
We talked a lot about joy during advent. God’s desire is for us to find and have abundant or overflowing joy.
7. Approach your Bible EXPECTANTLY
When we prepare to read the Bible, we can expect it to have an effect on our lives and as we share it with others, the Gospel will save people.
8. Approach your Bible COMMUNALLY
You can read your Bible on your own, but make a point of opening the word in community.
9. Approach your Bible Christ-centered
The final approach to reading God’s Word is to see God’s word with Jesus Christ as central.
Someone could approach the Bible with all of the first eight perspectives and miss the whole point of God’s message to us.
Birds-eye view of this incredible collection we call the Bible.
- Sixty-six books of different literary genres
- More than 40 authors from a variety of backgrounds and occupations
- Over 1500 years of writings
- Ten unique civilizations
- Spread over three continents
- Written in three diverse languages
- All telling one unified story of redemption
Another way of seeing the Bible is this:
Old Testament: Anticipation
Gospels: Manifestation
Acts: Proclamation
Epistles: Explanation
Revelation: Consummation
When you open your Bible, look for Jesus in every chapter. You will either be looking forward to His coming, seeing Him living, dying, and rising from the grave, learning how to follow Him and share the Gospel, or looking forward to his return. It’s all about Jesus!
Take Aways
If you have struggled with reading God’s Word regularly, I hope these nine approaches will help and encourage you to fall in love with Scripture.
Psalm 119
You could make a section of Psalm 119 your daily reading for twenty-two days.
Proverb a Day
You could read a Proverb a day for thirty-one days. That covers any month.
Read in a Year Plans
You could choose one of the yearly-reading plans to help you stay on track.
Bible App
You could use the Bible app with it’s many reading plans.
If you’ve read the Bible through and want to try something different, you can read the chronological Bible which puts all the books and passages in order. There’s one at the Welcome Center.
Pastor Mark’s Favorite
My favorite way to dig deeper is to read the same chapter every day for a week. Each day I write out one verse and then answer four questions:
- What does the verse say?
- What does it mean in its original setting?
- What does it mean for me today?
- What do I need to do in light of what I learned?
These questions came from On Track devotions which I used in youth ministry for many years. It’s available in digital or print formats. And there is a free sample to try first.
How to Study the Bible free download.
Include Others
Ask a family member, spouse, or friend to read with you and help each other stay the course. You can discuss what you read and encourage each other too. You may want to pick a reward to celebrate your completion or to encourage your family to keep going.
Don’t have an all or nothing attitude.
If you miss a day, don’t give up. Get back into God’s Word again tomorrow. You will be glad you did!
