We all have an idea of our perfect Bible-reading time. There are many factors that play into it, with each giving us a sense of peace and satisfaction because it’s exactly what we want. Ask yourself a few of these questions about your own ideal time:
- What time of day would you prefer?
- Where would you like to sit and read?
- How much time would you like to set aside to read, pray, etc?
- What would you like to use – a certain Bible, commentary, etc?
- What else is important? Do you have coffee or a warm blanket? Is there music playing, or are you sitting in total silence?
- How do you want to feel at the end of it?
If our schedules allowed us to have our perfect reading time, we could probably read the Bible once or twice every year, growing deeper in our walk with Christ. That time would be so precious that even Numbers wouldn’t be as much of a struggle!
Yet it’s rare to get such a time once a month, if we ever get it at all. Work demands our mornings, kids defy our love of peace, and by the time we can eke out 10 minutes to ourselves our coffee has already gone cold. Or perhaps we feel nothing when we read, wondering why we bother if it feels so pointless. Do we push on and make sure our time in God’s word stays consistent, or do we let excuses keep piling up until we’ve busied ourselves with everything else in life?
If many of us are honest, it’s easy to take a “my way or the highway” approach to reading our Bible. We certainly don’t mean to, but it’s frustrating to go from wanting 2 hours of diligent reading, study, and prayer, only to compromise it for something so much less. If we can’t read our Bible well, we’ll often find reasons not to do it at all rather than risk reading it poorly.
But is there another way to think about our time in God’s word?
Fundamentally important
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We all know reading our Bible is important. Here, Paul gives us several good reasons why we should make it a priority. In a nutshell, God’s word is valuable for every aspect of our lives. It teaches us about God, holy living, obedience, sin, and everything else we need. God’s word equips us to actively live for Him.
That Bible is our best glimpse into the nature, character, and desires of God. Far more than our feelings, it’s His word that is our guide for serving Christ and killing sin. Never will we have an item in our lives so vitally important as the Bible.
Often, it’s that overwhelming importance that can make our time reading His word so difficult. We want to make it a high priority. We don’t want to give God the scraps of our time, fitting Him in whenever it’s convenient for us. So we’ll skip one day here because life got crazy, then another day because the whole house caught the flu. Soon it becomes increasingly difficult to spend time in His word because we just can’t find that special time we want to devote to it. We fall off the horse, standing idly by because we’re waiting for that perfect moment to jump back on.
Anything worth doing…
… is worth doing right. We all know the phrase, and many of us have probably used it when we consider whether we should settle for reading a few verses in a noisy office, or hope to find some quality time later to really devote to God. It’s a wonderful idea, but that popular phrase is surprisingly lacking.
I once heard someone argue “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” In other words, if something is worthwhile then even a lesser result is better than none at all. The phrase sounds like it’s just trying to pick a fight, but let’s take a moment to consider how we can apply it to our Bible reading.
God’s word is crucial to our spiritual health. The longer we go without it, the more easily and frequently we see other areas of our spiritual walk slip. At the same time, we must accept that we may never get that ideal scenario to read it as we want. That leaves us with two choices: we can read His word poorly, or not at all.
With the Bible being as important as it is, removing the nearly-impossible option suddenly frees us to make the obvious choice. Some time with God is clearly better than none at all. When we stop holding out for what we idealize, we are more excited for every little bit of time with God we can find.
Try, try again
Our walk with God isn’t always where we want it to be. Some may find themselves at a time where an hour with God is easy to find, quietly watching the sunrise while exploring the depths of Romans using their well-worn study Bible. Others may frantically try reading a few verses on their phone in between meetings. I’m sure all of us will find ourselves at a point where we feel so cold toward God’s word that we walk away feeling absolutely nothing at all, questioning if tomorrow would be better spent doing something else.
Where we are now isn’t where we’ll always be. Those perfect times may become a thing of the past, forcing us to be content with spending time with God at others times and in other ways. For others, these frustrating weeks and months of struggling through reading are creating a discipline that God will use in the future.
Just as a husband and wife may have to spend years enjoying small bits of time together throughout the week, so many of us will have seasons where our time with God isn’t as rich as we’d like, but the time we’re given is still better than nothing at all. In the end, it’s all about letting go of our wants and fulfilling our needs in whatever way we can.
For many of us, perhaps today is a day where we must accept that it’s better to read our Bible poorly, treasuring what few verses we can manage, rather than not read at all.
