Daily Bible Reading – A Personal Story with Helpful Tips
Do you ever find your daily Bible reading becoming routine? I know that I do.
It’s easy to go through the motions, get into a routine and not get much out of it.
You may start to neglect it…and eventually give up altogether.
Here is my own daily Bible reading story…
Recently, I was doing my daily Bible reading according to my schedule. I just wanted to fulfill my duty, get it over with, and go to bed. Reading through the middle of Isaiah can be dry at times with a lot of words rebuking Israel for their wayward condition.
I came to Isaiah 28 which begins with, “Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim…”
Doesn’t sound like a chapter that you’d want to spend much time in but as I hastily read through the chapter, I came across verse 16 which says,
“Therefore thus says / The Lord Jehovah: / Indeed I lay a stone in Zion as a foundation, / A tested stone, / A precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established; / He who believes will not hasten away.”
By this point I basically wanted to just get through my Bible reading and didn’t spend any time to consider verse 16 even though I recognized that it had something to do with Christ.
Later, the Lord reminded me to come back to verse 16 and consider Him as the “precious cornerstone as a foundation.”
I had to stop, come back to this verse, consider the revelation of Christ there and pray.
I read the footnote on Isaiah 28:16 in the Recovery Version Study Bible that points out that this verse refers to “the trustworthy Christ as a foundation stone and a precious cornerstone for God’s building.”
I couldn’t help but pray,
“Lord, You’re that foundation stone laid by God. You were that “stone” tested on the cross. But now, in Your resurrection, You are that precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established. Thank you that he who believes in You will not hasten away, will not be ashamed. Lord, I believe in You as the cornerstone.”
Then that note referred me to Psalm 118:22-24 and the notes there.
When I looked up Psalm 118:22-24 it read,
“The stone which the builders rejected / Has become the head of the corner. This is from Jehovah; / It is wonderful in our sight. This is the day that Jehovah has made; / Let us exult and rejoice in it.”
Part of the footnote on Psalm 118:22 says,
“Christ as the cornerstone is for the building up of the church in the New Testament age. In God’s New Testament economy Christ as the cornerstone, in His saving us (Acts 4:11-12), first makes us living stones for the building up of God’s spiritual house (Matt. 16:16-18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:2-6), and then, in the process of His transforming us (Rom. 12:2a; 2 Cor. 3:18), builds us up into a dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:19-22), that He may carry out God’s eternal economy for God’s good pleasure (Eph. 1:9; 3:9-11).”
Then I just had pray,
“Lord Jesus, I praise you that You are God’s precious cornerstone. I thank you that as such a cornerstone you saved me! You saved me for the building up of God’s spiritual house. Lord, thank you for making me a living stone for your house, for transforming me and building me up with many other living stones into Your dwelling place that You may carry out God’s eternal economy or plan to satisfy God’s good pleasure.”
This is just an example of what I would have missed if I would have just kept reading and not taken the time to look for, open to, and appreciate Christ in my daily Bible reading.
6 tips you can apply to upgrade your daily Bible reading
- Pray before you read the Bible. Pray to turn your heart to the Lord and deal with your heart that your heart will be pure in order to see God (2 Cor. 3:16; Matt. 5:8).
- Read the books of the Bible consecutively. There are hidden riches of Christ awaiting your discovery in every book.
- Look for Christ on every page. If you find Him, and come to Him, you will get life (John 5:39-40).
- Pause when you discover something concerning Christ. Don’t be in a hurry. It’s more important to spend time with the Lord in the word than to keep up with your schedule.
- Take a moment to thank or praise Him for what He has done or for who He is. By appreciating Christ in God’s word He will infuse you with more of Himself as faith (Luke 24:27-32).
- Try doing a focused reading of the Bible. Such a reading may keep you from falling into a routine as you read through the Bible time after time. Sometimes it helps to look for something specific as you read. For example, one time you may focus on verses that refer to Christ. Another time you might look for verses related to God’s salvation, the Triune God, the Spirit, the eternal life, or the church.
This way of daily Bible reading will cause your taste for God’s Word to increase so that you want to come back again and again…not out of duty but out of desire.
Then with the psalmist in Psalm 119:103, you’ll be able to declare,
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”
If you enjoyed this post, take a moment to leave a comment or continue the conversation on the Holding to Truth Facebook or Google+ Page.
For a deeper appreciation of why you should read the Bible, you make enjoy reading this post on the Bibles for America blog, “Why Read the Bible?“
About Tom Smith
Hi. My name is Tom Smith. I'm the writer behind Holding to Truth in Love, and I love the Lord Jesus and His life-giving Word. Please feel free to send me an e-mail through the contact page if you have any questions. I hope you'd take a moment to subscribe to the Holding to Truth blog. Then you'll be sure not to miss a post. Thanks!
Wonderful! + Genuineness and gravity, seriousness toward GOD’s own WORD!
Thank you for this reminder to read the Bible every day, not as a duty, but to” contact the Lord, to take Him, to receive Him, to taste Him, and to enjoy Him.” (RcV Isaiah 57:20 footnote 1) I noticed reading through Isaiah this time that there are seven chapters that begin with “Woe!” of which chapter 28 is one. There is one chapter that begins with “Ho!” Hoe is a call to the thirsty to come and enjoy!
When I don’t feel like reading, I remind myself that all Scripture is “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). Even when we don’t understand it, we can still breath in the Spirit, who is the essence of the Scriptures. We need more of God Himself and the Bible is the divine “filling station.” We can “pump” out, that is to receive the divine supply by praying at every time in spirit (Eph. 6:17-18). Thanks for the confirming comment.
Always love stories like these. Thank you for sharing.
Tom, thanks for the personal testimony and the useful tips. Regarding tip 6, sometimes it is worth buying a simple New Testament and marking/highlighting it because you might not want so many marks or highlights in your primary Bible. For example, mark everywhere in the Gospels that someone appealed to the Lord for help and His response; in Acts mark everything that the believers proclaimed about the Lord; in the Epistles mark every verse about salvation. Wrtie a note about what the marks mean to help you remember when you look back years later.
Don, Using a different copy of the New Testament for focused readings is a great idea. Similarly, I’ve also made a practice of highlighting with different colors of colored pencils to identify different topics of truth that I may be reading for. For example, verses that refer to the divine life, I might highlight with a green color and verses that mention aspects of the Spirit of God I might highlight with an aqua color. When we realize these precious aspects, it’s good to pause and thank or praise the Lord for what we have just seen. Thanks for the enriching comment.
Greetings from New Zealand Tom
Many times i skip across your notifications in my email. Today through the Lord’s grace i took the time to read and it brought me to tears.
I recently started going through the Morning Revival again after many years and already it feels like a ‘task’. I need the Lord’s mercy to enjoy Him in the word again and your steps are so powerful and practical.
I sense the Lord is stirring up His group of overcomers. May the Lord keep our hearts soft towards Him so that He’s able to gain us completely for the building up of his dwelling place.
Natallia, thank you for your touching comment. I believe that we all become weary on the journey of our Christian life. Even the precious things such as reading God’s word can become a chore at times. at such times we need to hit the “reset button” or at least “refresh.”
It helps simply to focus on the Lord Himself, to contact Him and enjoy Him. Then we will have a morning “revival” even if we don’t finish all of our scheduled reading. It’s more important to leave with a taste for the Lord. This will bring us back to the word and prayer again and again.
I’m reminded of this simple prayer, “Lord grant me a sweet taste of You in your word today.”
Yes…may the Lord keep our hearts soft towards Him so that He’s able to gain us completely for the building up of his dwelling place.
Thank you for your confirming comment.
Brother Tom thank you for your much enlightening personal testimony. I do agree with you. Sometimes our reading of the Bible does become a mere routine duty to fulfil. In the FTTA-MA we were given a schedule to read through the New Testament each term. I diligently stuck to that schedule and completed the reading. But when I read somewhere where Brother Lee said that in our Christian walk we have to be willing to be “wronged and defrauded”, with a Scripture reference, I could not remember any such words in the Bible. So I checked the Scripture reference, and 1 Corinthians 1:7 does indeed say:
“You have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged.
Why not rather be defrauded.”
The footnote was even much more enriching. It said:
“Willingness to be wronged or defrauded is willingness to suffer loss, to
learn the lesson of the cross, to keep the virtue of Christ at some cost.”
The contribution I am making is that, in my experience, going into the Scripture references in our reading of other ministry materials may lead us into finding and focusing on Christ in a portion of a Scripture we had never paid much attention to before.
Further, it is vital that we approach the Bible prayerfully in our mingled spirit with the intention of apprehending the Person of Christ in the Word of God.
May the Lord give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him (Eph. 1:17). Amen