As children of God, we understand the importance of Scripture. Thousands of years ago, long before you were ever born, God ensured that men and women who faithfully served Him would be inspired to write down the words that He wanted His people to hear and read. Since the days of its original writing, God has also supernaturally protected Scripture, ensuring that we still have a perfect, infallible copy of His Word. Should you read the Bible every day? Absolutely!
“Do I really need to read the Bible every day?” This question and others like it have been asked by believers for years. Generally, the people who pose this question are open about the fact that they just don’t enjoy reading, or they believe that they don’t have time to sit down and read their Bible every day. After all, if you’re going to read the Word of God, shouldn’t you set aside hours of time so you can truly allow Him to speak to you? You may be surprised that the answer to that question is no.
Sure, if you have time, spending hours reading your Bible is a wonderful, productive, Godly thing to do. However, God would rather you read a little bit of His Word every day than go days at a time without opening your Bible because you only have 20 or 30 minutes of available time.
God has made sure that His Word is available to all of us. He did that because He wanted to have an open line of communication with us. Unfortunately, it’s easy to look at our busy schedules, our lack of general interest in reading, and our familiarity with Scripture and decide that we don’t really need to read the Bible every day. That’s simply not the case.
Instead of looking for reasons to delay reading your Bible, consider these reasons to incorporate Scripture into every day. When you start looking for the benefits it provides, it’s easy to make Bible study a daily habit.
The Bible is Inspired by God
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (TPT)
Every Scripture has been inspired by the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the paths of godliness. Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you.
If we wanted to stop here, we certainly could. There is no better reason to read the Bible every day than the fact that the words that we read in the Bible were divinely inspired by God. Take a moment and let that fact truly set in. Whether you’re holding a hard copy of the Bible or you’re reading an app on your phone or tablet, the words that are contained within it were given to the people who wrote them through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
That fact becomes even more impressive when you take a look at the numbers. Of the 66 books that make up what we recognize as the Bible, there were around 40 different authors. This collection of men and women, many of whom never met one another, wrote the Bible from dozens of different cities and countries in three different languages. Even more impressively, the text that we hold today was compiled over the course of thousands of years. God was so passionate about people in 2022 having access to His Word that He took the time to make sure that each and every word was not online divinely inspired, but also that it was supernaturally protected.
What is the best reason to read the Bible every day? It’s because it is God’s divinely inspired Word that He has protected because He knows that we need it. It gives us a greater insight into who He is. Do you have a favorite actor, athlete, political figure, or other public figure? If so, you may have read their autobiography so you can get a better understanding of who they are. Consider Scripture your autobiography of God. It goes from the beginning of time and into the future, giving us a deeper insight into who He is and what He wants for us.
The Bible Builds Up Your Faith
John 20:31 (TPT)
But all that is recorded here is so that you will fully believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you will experience eternal life by the power of his name!
When you truly embrace the truths found in Scripture, it’s impossible to not experience an increase in your faith. The stories contained in Scripture are not simply there so we can read them, smile, and move on. The Bible is much more than a story book. Instead, it is a living, breathing source of faith. In the Old Testament, you can read countless stories of God doing things for His people that defied logic. David killing Goliath, Joshua leading the Israelites through the walls of Jericho, and Daniel surviving a night in a den of hungry lions are all powerful stories that can build your faith.
The New Testament contains even more stories that can build your faith. Stories of Christ healing people, calming storms, and raising the dead make up the first part of Scripture, while stories of Paul’s travels and God’s supernatural ability working through him, and other believers fills the rest.
When you read the Bible, it serves as a sort of faith infusion. All of us could use some more faith. Reading the Bible provides that.
The Bible Transforms Its Readers
Hebrews 4:12 (TPT)
For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.
There are very few pieces of literature that truly have the power to transform its readers. Perhaps you’ve heard about a self-help book or another book that provides some life-changing principles. There is certainly nothing wrong with those books, but for the most part, they don’t truly change you when you read them. Instead, they rely on telling you which habits and thought patterns you should change so you can achieve some sort of desired result. The Bible goes beyond that. Yes, it tells us about things that we should remove from our lives and what sort of Godly principles we should replace them with, but the point of Scripture is not for us to change ourselves. Instead, it is for us to allow God to change us.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to “examine themselves” so they could ensure that they were living a life that lined up with the faith that they professed. Even though he wrote those words thousands of years ago, the importance of doing so still applies today. One of the most effective ways to examine yourself to ensure that you’re still living the faith is to constantly compare your life to the words that God provided in Scripture.
We don’t know who the author of Hebrews was, but we do know that he or she understood the importance of Scripture. The imagery used in these verses may sound a bit uncomfortable, but the power of Scripture to “penetrate to the very core of our being” isn’t about blood and gore. Instead, it speaks to the Bible’s ability to transform us from the inside out.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me an inspired, divinely protected copy of Your Word. I know that You have done so because You want me to read it and apply it to my life every day. Help me to identify opportunities to read Your Word. Even more importantly, help me to find the areas in my life where I can apply the truths contained in Scripture so I can be a better Christian. In Christ’s name I ask these things, Amen.