Starting the Year with Scripture

As the new year begins, it is helpful for us to consider how we can draw closer to our Savior. In His great love for us, God promises to commune with us as we devote ourselves to His Word. But if we are honest with ourselves, many of us struggle to spend time reading God’s Word. Let me reassure you that it is never too late to start! To help, I offer seven practical tips that I have learned over the years for you to consider in your own regular reading of Scripture.

1. Have a Plan

A Scripture reading plan provides you with the structure to read God’s Word. Since God has revealed all of Scripture for our good and His glory, a plan breaks down this big book into manageable bites for your soul to feast on daily. There are many reading plans out there, and the best one for you is the one that you are able to consistently use.

Let me provide some suggestions in choosing a plan: First, you may want a plan that includes a few passages from different parts of Scripture, which gives some variety to what you are reading from different genres and times in redemptive history. Second, if you are new to a Scripture reading plan, then consider reading through the New Testament in a year, or reading through the Bible over two or three years. Reading smaller portions of God’s Word each day can be less of a hurdle to overcome in developing a new habit. Third, some plans require reading five days a week rather than seven. This gives you flexibility to catch up if you miss a day during the week, or an opportunity to reflect on what you have read through the week over a weekend.

I like the Five Day Bible Reading Plan, and Ligonier Ministries also provides a list of many plans to choose from each year. But whatever Scripture reading plan you choose, what matters most is that you stick to it through the year. If it helps, take advantage of technology, such as a Bible app with built-in reading plans or audio narrations of others reading Scripture to you.

2. Set a Time

Trying to fit in Bible reading during the day will always be difficult. Our lives are busy, and Satan will do what he can to keep us from receiving the spiritual nourishment that God’s Word brings into our lives. This is why setting aside time each day gives us some discipline, and many Christians have found that starting each day in Scripture is very valuable. When you wake up in the morning, beginning with the Bible equips you with God’s perspective for the rest of the day, and it minimizes the risk of failing to read the Bible later in the day. So try to read the Bible before looking at your phone or turning on the TV. Avoid getting sucked into the demands of the day by first devoting yourself to the Lord.

If the morning will not work for you, figure out another time that will work each day. Maybe it is during a break at work or after dinner in the evening. You can set a daily alarm to remind you. Whatever you do, protect this time. It is a daily opportunity to hear from God as the Holy Spirit speaks through the words of Scripture.

Time in God’s Word can start small, with the average chapter of Scripture taking about 5 minutes to read. Reading through the Bible in a year typically takes setting aside 15-20 minutes each day. What an investment this daily time will be for the good of your soul!

3. Pray for Insight

God never intended for us to read God’s Word on our own. Our sinfulness keeps us from understanding its truth and recognizing its significance for our lives. This is why we have the Holy Spirit within us as believers in Christ, so that we will know and cherish the precious truths of Scripture. Therefore, we pray for the Spirit’s ministry to renew our minds and revive our hearts as we read the Bible.

Before you start reading, pray for the Lord to enlighten your mind with His truth. As you read, pray for the Lord to help you understand what He is revealing to us through these verses. Once you are done reading, pray for the Lord to help you apply its truth in your life.

Praying is not a magical cure making the Bible instantly understandable and easily practiced. You will still wrestle over Scripture and struggle over obeying God’s will. But prayer is an expression of our dependence upon God, trusting that He will bless our time in His Word as we devote ourselves to it.

4. Meditate on Scripture

When reading Scripture, one of the dangers we can run into is treating it as a daily task to be completed: Wake up, check. Drink coffee, check. Read Bible, check. Eat breakfast, check. We should not reduce our time in God’s Word to being one item on a checklist to get done with so that we can move on in our day.

This is what happens when we lose sight of Christianity being a relationship with Christ, and instead treat Christianity as a lifestyle to be maintained. When we live this way, our hearts become cold to God, and reading His Word becomes a mere duty to obey. So I read the Bible because Christians are supposed to read the Bible, not because Christ speaks to me through the Bible and I enjoy fellowship with Him by hearing His words.

How can I prevent this from taking place in my life? In addition to prayer, I keep my Bible open once I am done reading it to meditate on what it means. Maybe I choose a verse to think about for a few minutes, reading it over and over again while emphasizing a different word each time. Or I ask myself questions, such as: What does this tell me about God? Why did God reveal this to His people? What does this mean for my life? Taking a little extra time to meditate helps us store up His Word in our hearts.

5. Keep a Journal

Journaling scares some people, often because they envision writing extended insights on Scripture in a nice notebook. But I am thinking of something much more basic: a place to write down thoughts and questions as you read God’s Word. It could be a piece of paper left in your Bible, or something else that you keep with your Bible to write things down.

Writing your thoughts and questions down gives you the opportunity to review them later, guide further biblical study, and answer lingering questions for you to better understand Scripture. How many times have you struggled to remember an idea you had while reading God’s Word? How many times have your questions while reading the Bible gone unanswered? Journaling serves as a helpful aid for you to deepen your knowledge and cultivate your heart.

6. Look for Christ

A challenge when reading Scripture is missing the forest for the trees. In other words, we spend our time in the details of the Bible without seeing how they connect and contribute to the big picture of God’s Word. So we read verses and chapters separated from the one story of Scripture: God’s salvation for sinners through Jesus Christ. It is like we are staring at the bark and branches of a tree without ever being lifted up in the sky to understand where the tree fits within the overall forest.

Rather than remaining confused or unfulfilled when reading Scripture, look for ways that these verses and chapters relate to Christ. When do they take place in the history of salvation? How do they connect to the promise of Christ’s coming? What persons and events give us a glimpse of Christ? What is the relationship between Christ and the commands and instruction in this passage?

Every sentence of Scripture is meant to glorify God by showing us Christ and our salvation in Him. Don’t finish reading God’s Word without seeing how it relates to our Savior.

7. Prioritize the Church

This may seem like a strange tip at first glance, but my advice would be incomplete without it. God never intended for us to read Scripture apart from His church. We gather together to hear the Word preached on the Lord’s Day, where a man of God speaks with the voice of God to show us the truths of God from Scripture. We also live together as a community of faith, sharing with each other biblical truths and helping one another better understand what God has revealed to us.

Relying on yourself to grow in your knowledge of God and His Word is actually a form of pride. While the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth, He does so primarily through the ministry and fellowship of the church. Therefore, don’t divorce your reading of Scripture from your membership in the body of Christ. True blessing is found when these two are paired together.

My hope is that this interaction with God’s Word and Christ’s people will lead to the Lord richly blessing your soul and enflaming your heart to worship Him.