When life is hard, we need God’s comfort and assurance of His promises more than ever. In these moments, some people draw nearer to God. Some people (including some from the first group) struggle to read the Bible, even when they know it’s best for them. I know that because it describes me too.
If you struggle to get as far as even picking up your Bible, please read this post first.
Whatever is making life difficult right now, from muddling through the mundane to facing deep tragedy, here are some ideas to get your Bible reading back on track.
Pray
This may seem obvious, but as my previous church minister says, “if it goes without saying, it needs to be said.”
We can pray when we lack the motivation or desire to pick up the Bible, for the Holy Spirit to provide what we need.
We can pray that when we lack the knowledge or wisdom to understand and apply the Bible, the Holy Spirit will provide what we need.
Start small
If you go from nothing to two hours of Bible study every night, your new routine will be difficult to stick to. It’s often recommended to start smaller and build up your Bible ‘stamina’.
When my second child was born, I did a 30-day series of one-verse Bible studies. It took the pressure off when I had no energy and allowed me to enjoy the time I spent in the Bible.
Use Aids
Don’t worry if the Bible is overwhelming. Here are three types of support for reading and understanding the Bible:
a) Bible Study Guides
There are lots of great options out there. For a Christian struggling with depression, I highly recommend Tumbling Sky. Other favourites of mine include Explore (physical books or an app) and the Good Book Company series with white covers.
The YouVersion Bible app has lots of free options. However, they are not regulated and have notes of variable quality – I suggest using this when you have recommendations for good series.
b) Bible Study Notes
Unlike the above, these are usually not specific to the Bible passage you’re studying, but still provide questions to support you through the passage. The advantage of these is that they only need to be purchased once, although the next option is to make them yourself, which is completely free…
c) Bible Reading Techniques
There are various techniques to help you read the Bible. Here are two commonly recommended ones:
The Three Questions method simply asks three questions of each Bible passage you study?
What do we learn about God?
What do we learn about our world?
How should we respond?
If you’re a big fan of acronyms, you may prefer the SOAP method:
Scripture – read the Bible
Observations – what do you notice? What does it mean?
Apply – How does it impact me and the world around me?
Prayer – er, pray
Read with Someone
When it is hard to read or understand the Bible or if you’re having a rough patch, reading with someone else is a great way to allow God to rekindle your joy in His Word. I personally found this the most helpful thing to get me through a time of depression.
Accountability
Reading with someone else isn’t always practically possible, so here is the next best thing. Getting someone to regularly ask how your quiet Bible reading times are going can help if you’re tempted to forget and let it slip off your schedule. If you go this route, make sure your accountability partner remembers that faith is primarily about grace, not works.
Set your Expectations
If you pick up your Bible expecting to be profoundly moved to tears in the face of an awe-inspiring God you are likely to be disappointed eventually. Yes, we should probably feel that way more often than we do, but our human sinfulness does not stop a less dramatic Bible reading from transforming our hearts. I’ve heard it described as meals before – not every one is the most incredible meal ever. But each meal does its part to keep us alive and going until the next meal. When those special meals come though, rejoice in their beauty!
Meditate
We’ve finally read our Bibles and worked out what it means. We need to let those words sink in. Memory verses or summary phrases can help us to focus on key points. Music can direct our thoughts too.
I find this site useful for reflecting on the Psalms.
Pray again
We read the Bible to listen to God. Prayer is our opportunity to respond and to ask for help to live in response to His words. So we can never pray too much!
Keep praying and Meditating!
I won’t lie and pretend I find this one easy. It is important though. You can’t just put the phone down on God. He is always with us. So please join with me in striving to keep pondering the things we read once our Bibles are close and to keep talking to God about them in prayer.
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