That is a loaded question. I suppose the simplest answer is, if you believe there is a God, and if you believe the book, the Bible, is His word preserved for us, then…
- It is the most direct way to gain an understanding of who God is, what a relationship with Him would be like, and what He has to share with us about our existence and purpose in the lives we’ve been given.
- It is a library of story and instruction to help make sense of our world and ourselves.
- It is a comfort to read of the story of peoples who have gone before and their experience in relating to and coming to know and love their Creator.
- Being immersed in its pages alters your life by altering your thinking and perspective about the people and circumstances of your life. Your life will be different, it will be changed by encountering God in the words He’s left for us to understand.
If any of that resonates with you, then the why of reading the Bible is tackled, next is the how.
- It’s ideal to have a portion of each day reserved to meet with God in His word.
- We don’t always reach our ideals, but I like the idea of “more often than not.” It’s not every day, but it’s most days. In a week that would be four encounters some time during the week. That seems less daunting.
- In fact if you would close this tab, stop reading this and take a look into the Bible … you would be one opportunity closer than you are right now. Here’s a link appropriate to the season where I like to read the Bible in my browser.
I am putting these web pages together so that I can have a place to write my thoughts and impressions from my reading. And to be held accountable as you see the cracks in my consistency. I’ve done this before and petered out. But if you don’t get back up and try again, you’ll never experience succeeding.
So here’s what I’m intending to do. I am going back to my favorite reading plan, the Life Journal plan. This is a “read the Bible in one year” plans. But I like it because it is fairly short, each day’s reading should take you about 15-20 minutes to read through. It usually has a chapter from both the Old and the New Testament, so there is variety in each day’s reading. And the Life Journal part is if you journal about the day’s reading and you continue for many years, you can look back and see how the same passage spoke to you in different ways as you read the same section on the same day each year. (Of course to experience that you have to commit to the full package over multiple years! Again, starting is the only way to experience this.)
That’s my method, and some of my reasons. The only thing left to do is get started.