EP 196: When You Need a Reset with Your Bible Reading
Inside: Need a reset with your Bible reading? I’m raising my hand too. A little encouragement to simplify and begin again.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Listen to the Podcast (5 minutes):
Maybe summer threw your routines off a bit, or life has just been full, and you’ve realized you haven’t been spending as much time in God’s Word as you’d like.
I’m raising my hand here with you because it’s where I’ve found myself recently.
I had been working through a Bible reading plan, but somewhere along the way it just became too much for me. I had gotten pretty far behind, and I’m not one to try to catch up when that happens—I’ll usually just pick up where I am. But this time, even doing that felt overwhelming. I realized I needed to simplify my plan for this season.
So this fall, I’m reading through the New Testament, along with Psalms and Proverbs, and I’ve also been camping in Ephesians for a while to study it a little more deeply.
I used the Bible Reading Plan Generator to put together a plan that feels much more doable for me right now.
Maybe you need a reset too.
Sometimes the plan that worked for us in one season just isn’t working in another. That doesn’t mean we give up being in the Word. Maybe it simply means we need to adjust the plan. The plan is there to help us get into God’s Word—not to become another burden we’re carrying.
And sometimes we can make getting back into the Word more complicated than it needs to be. We think we need to catch up on everything we missed, find a new study, buy a new journal, or wait until Monday morning to start fresh.
We don’t.
We can just open our Bibles today.
Keep It Simple
I like to keep Bible reading simple: pick a time, pick a place, and pick a plan.
It doesn’t have to be in the morning, although I personally love starting my day with the Lord before everything else starts pressing in. Maybe your time is during the kids’ naptime, over a lunch break, or after everyone goes to bed.
And you don’t need hours.
Some days it may be a few verses or a short psalm. Other days you may have the gift of a longer stretch in the Word. The point isn’t to have a perfect Bible reading routine. It’s to be in God’s Word.
We don’t read our Bibles to earn God’s favor or simply to check something off our list. We read because we’re His children and we want to know our Father.
We need His truth to shape our thinking, convict us of sin, strengthen our faith, and help us see our lives rightly.
Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
God uses His Word to make us more like Christ. We need it.
Just Begin
If you’re not sure where to begin, choose one book of the Bible and read it slowly. Philippians or James are both great places to start.
As you read, you can ask yourself a few simple questions:
- What does this teach me about God?
- What does this show me about myself in relation to God?
- How can I apply what I’ve read to my life today?
Keep a notebook nearby if that helps you, but you don’t need anything elaborate.
If you’ve gotten behind on a reading plan, it’s okay to adjust it or just start with the current day’s reading. You don’t have to go back and catch up on everything you missed. If you’re regularly reading through the Bible, you’ll come back around to those portions again. The important thing is that we keep coming back to God’s Word.
God’s Word is our daily bread, not a once-a-week feast. As we spend time in His Word, the Holy Spirit uses His truth to renew our minds, expose our sin, strengthen our faith, and conform us more and more into the image of Christ.
So if you’re raising your hand with me today, let’s not wait until we have the perfect plan or the perfect morning.
Let’s just open our Bibles and begin again.
More Encouragement in Homemaking Matters
If you have a copy of Homemaking Matters, Chapter 9, “Daily Devotion and Spiritual Growth,” goes a little deeper into Bible reading, prayer, Scripture memory, and making time with the Lord. You’ll find more encouragement and practical help there.
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