22nd February 2025 question-box

Today’s question is:

What are practical tips on daily bible reading? I struggle to do it regularly.

Good question: Hey, you know daily personal bible reading has only really been a thing for the average Christian in the last few hundred years, since the invention of the printing press? Personal daily bible reading is really helpful… but it’s not actually a sin to miss it. I mean, Psalm 1 says: “Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” The focus here is not that you have to read a passage by yourself every day, but that there is a blessing in regularly meditating on the things you’ve been learning, and reflecting on how it lands in your life.

Here’s five practical tips:

• Learn delight not just duty: Remember “this is the word of the God who loves me.” You’re definitely not earning his acceptance by doing your quiet time.
• Remember your own weakness without Him: And let that awareness give you a hunger for his word.
• Have realistic expectations: Good on those people who can read four chapters a day, and get through the whole bible in a year; personally I just read one little section most days, and then take some time to think about it.
• When you dry up…switch to another part of the bible. If you’re stuck half way through Jeremiah, and have stopped reading, then perhaps it’s better to switch over to another part of the bible, and you can try Jeremiah again another time.
• Establish a habit. We are creatures of habit For me its breakfast cereal, bible. Food for stomach, food for soul.

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This question was originally answered in our evening service on 27 October 2024. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.