Big Ears Are Beautifulናሙና

How to read through the Bible

• If you are beginning to explore the Bible:
• Pick a consistent place and time to read your Bible each day.
• Begin with a short book of the New Testament in a version you can easily understand.
• Read a chapter each day.
• When you finish reading a book, write the date in your Bible’s table of contents and feel the victory!
• Repeat these steps with another book of the Bible.

For those who have been at it for a while :

• What books of the Bible have you not read? 
• Go outside to read every now and then. Just sit and listen for a few moments after you read. Journal your thoughts about the passage and how you can apply it.  
• Read more, or less, than you usually do. If you read a lot in one sitting, then ponder a verse or two. If you usually grab a verse or two, sit down and read through a few chapters in a row.  
• Buy a different version to hear the same truths in a fresh way. 
• Challenge yourself to recall verses and to find them.  

Reading through the Bible doesn’t take as much time as you might think. It takes the average reader 70 hours: The Old Testament takes 52 hours and the New Testament, 18 hours. Tackling it a piece at a time is doable for anyone. Make it your aim to read it all the way through in the next year or two, and you will hear God like never before. It takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian. 

I look at my Bible as the workbook of my life. I write thoughts in its margins; I highlight its verses; and I write down important references on the title page so that I’ll always have them ready. My Bible is not like any other book, because I don’t own the Bible; it owns me. 

Every five years or so I get a new Bible. My plan is to have at least 10 life worn Bibles that I can eventually give to each of my children and grandchildren. I look forward to when I can place a Bible that guided me for a season into their hands as a map for their soul. My hope is that they understand the importance of wearing out their Bibles. A worn Bible speaks of a protected heart.