Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Have you ever stopped to consider how you read the Bible? For many, we know we should read the Bible but it is a large tome full of 66 books. I think many start on a reading plan and then get behind and then eventually give up. For some, their Bible reading is tied in to a specific devotional they are doing. This usually just involves a short verse or passage and then a commentary on how it applies to your life.As I have been thinking about this, I believe that there are two approaches to daily Bible-reading. The first would be intimacy. Intimacy with the Bible comes through slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of key books, chapters, and verses. I have been involved in Bible studies like this. One I would highly recommend would be Precept Ministries Bible studies. Kay and David Arthur spend time going deep into each book. There were many times I had to wrestle with a text for a while before it began to make sense to me, and their insights were invaluable.
Another approach is familiarity. Familiarity with the Bible comes through faster reading of much larger portions—the entire sweep of the biblical narrative. The Bethel Bible series allowed me to look at key verses from larger chunks of scripture. Both are wonderful approaches to the Bible and I believe that Christ followers need a healthy mixture of the two. There is great benefit in knowing the Bible as a whole (familiarity) and in knowing the most important parts in detail (intimacy).
Below are a few of the many verses on why we need to be in the Word of God. Enjoy.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12