If you are new to Bible reading or trying to develop a daily reading habit, here are some top tips to help you.
1) Just Start – whether you have faithfully read your Bible daily for 5 years or you are struggling to read it more than once a month, there is no better time to read it than today. Don’t be put off by past failures. Sure, maybe you’ll forget to read it again for another week, but at least you read it today.
2) Pray – the Bible is the written word of God. It therefore makes sense to pray and ask Him to help you to understand what you are reading and put it into action.
3) Use a Reading Plan – this will give you a suggested Bible passage to read and some additional notes to help you understand and apply it. Try UCB Word for Today for a daily reading or download the YouVersion Bible App to find lots of free reading plans.
4) Verse Mapping – this involves taking a single verse and analysing it. Look at the verse in different translations, use a concordance to find other uses of the words in the text, look at the historical and Biblical context and ask yourself what the verse means for you today. See this Eden article for a more complete explanation. Bible Gateway is a great resource for checking different translations.
5) Memorise Verses – when Jesus was in the desert being tempted by the devil, he fought back with Scripture (Matthew 4, Luke 4). Memorising Bible verses helps us with our daily lives and God will bring those verses to mind when you need them most. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).
6) Make it a Habit – habits are hard to make, but they are also hard to break! Try to read your Bible at a similar time every day to make it into a habit. This might be first thing in the morning, last thing at night or whenever is convenient for you. Setting an alarm on your phone can help or set up notifications on the Bible app if you have it.
7) Ask Questions – there are many questions you could ask whilst reading the Bible, here are just three suggestions:
a. What is the text saying?
b. What does it mean for me?
c. What is God asking me to do?
It can help to keep a diary of the passages you have read and your answers to these questions.
8) Pick a Book – try reading a chapter or a few verses of a book each day. If you are new to reading the Bible, the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are an excellent place to start.
9) Pick a Bible Version – the beauty of the Bible app and websites like the Bible Gateway is that they provide hundreds of different translations of the Bible for you to choose from. Try different versions until you find the one that makes most sense for you.
10) Talk to Others – talk to other people about what you have read and ask questions. Some people you could talk to include older Christian family members, your Life Group (small Bible study group) leader, your Pastor or your Sunday School teachers.
Over to you! Do you have more tips? Share them in the comments!