How do you read your Bible?

Do you ever read the Bible and you find it to be tasteless and similar to cardboard in your mouth? Is it sometimes dry and hard to digest?

Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could read our Bibles, totally engrossed in every little detail, utterly absorbed in the stories, amazed and astounded at the truths we find there, hanging on every word and reading our Bibles was never dull or boring, ever again?

What if we could say along with the Psalmist…

Psalm 119:18 KJV - Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

What if we saw the Word of God as wondrous? Marvellous? Magnificent? Delightful? Incredible?

What if we could pour over God’s Word with intense curiosity and interest in finding just what each passage meant and how it applied to our lives? What if we could become so engrossed in our reading, that it was hard for others to get our attention, so focused were we on the words jumping off the page at us?

You know, we are often just like that with things in life. Whether it be a hobby, or a TV show, or a person or the beauty we find in nature. We can become so focused that everything around us seems to fade into the distance. But when it comes to God’s Word, we find ourselves distracted.

This year, I have become determined to memorize more scripture. As a child, I learnt many passages from the Bible, and thankfully, because of the age at which they were learnt, they have pretty much stayed in the recesses of my memory and I’m able to quote them, somewhat accurately, even 40 years later.

Fast forward a few decades, and it just isn’t as easy anymore to commit verses to memory. But God is good, and I believe that if we truly want to do something that he encourages in scripture, then he will help us to achieve it.

And so, I am a few verses into Psalm 119. It’s a slow process, but progress is being made.

I love this Psalm because of its focus on the Word of God. In all the 176 verses of this Psalm, we only find a handful that do not mention the Word of God, the law, judgements, precepts, testimonies, commandments, statutes. It is an absolute treasure trove!

Not only do we read of the importance of God’s Word, but we read of God’s attributes. His righteousness, truthfulness, faithfulness, trustworthiness, unchangeableness, eternality, purity.

I read recently that we tend to gravitate to one of three ways of reading the Bible. This particular writer stated that we either read the Scriptures inquisitively, inspirationally or imaginatively. And what we really need to do, is to read with all three of these perspectives.

Now, I’m not someone who fits in a box. I don’t like to colour inside the lines, but I am very interested in deepening my relationship with the Lord and digging deeper into the Word in order to gain knowledge and understanding to better live my Christian life, and if I can be shown a different perspective that will help my spiritual growth, then I’m all for it.

Let me explain a little about the three ways mentioned in order to get a better handle on this new thought brought to my attention.

An inquisitive reader loves to study the Bible and research all the details. They love its ability to instruct and train everyone to live Godly lives. For me, I love to look up the Greek and Hebrew words, trying to understand the true meanings, as they are often different than what we suppose. Don’t get me wrong, God’s Word is for correction and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is our instruction manual but if that’s the only way we look into God’s Word, we can miss the beauty and wonder of the stories we find in its pages. The Bible is not only knowledge to change our minds, but also to change our lives. And often, the stories have the ability to help with that.

Let’s move on to the inspirational Bible readers. They love to read the Word of God as a source of encouragement and often use it to lift their spirits. They read it as inspirational, and they enjoy the way it meets them right where they are. And yes, God’s Word is inspired, God breathed, and it is a very inspirational book. But if we are only reading it to get encouragement, we may miss out on great theological truths that are imperative to our Christian walk. The Bible does lift us up, the Psalms are full of precious promises that help us in difficult times, but it should also ground us in the faith. We should be learning to graduate from milk to meat in our spiritual diet. (Hebrews 5:13,14)

An imaginative Bible reader enthusiastically sees the Bible stories come alive. They read with excitement, imagining the setting, the people, the tale as it twists and turns. If you could read their minds, there would be an epic storyline rattling around in there, full of excitement and adventure. Now, I love to be imaginative when I read the stories of the Bible. And I especially love to teach them to children with all the excitement they deserve, but if we’re only imagining the stories in the Bible, we could miss the straightforwardness of the text and the message the words hold.

So, what kind of a reader are you? From what vantage point do you approach the Bible?

These three ways, and I’m sure there are others, are all important and need to be used when reading the Bible. But we need to be like the Psalmist when he asks God to open (uncover, disclose, reveal, discover) his eyes so that he can behold (consider, pay attention to, shew regard to) the wondrous things that are in the Word of God.

Psalm 119:18 KJV - Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

God loves to show us truth. He loves it when we have a holy curiosity for his Word and a hunger and thirst for the pages of Scripture.

Sometimes God teaches us his truth through seasons of questioning, on our part, where we desire to know more of what the words mean and how they relate. Other times he reveals truth through a time of meditation on his Word, a time where we are inspired by the words as they speak to us in our time of need. And at other times, he reveals truth by letting our imaginations run wild and the Word comes alive in vivid, high-definition colour and surround sound.

All three of these ways, inquisitive, inspirational and imaginative are valuable in the way we come to Scripture. We need a holy curiosity as we read the Word of God. We need to ask the hard questions, we need to be comforted and inspired and we need to use our imagination, without taking anything away from the beautiful words we find on the pages of our Bibles.

We need to read our Bibles with an eager desire to learn. We need to read with passion and interest. We need to be on our way to heaven with curiosity about what we’ve read and a fire that won’t be quenched. A fervent, excited, engaged mind, always wanting to read more, know more, learn more. We need to have such a love for the Word of God that we can’t go even one day without opening its pages to reveal the truths that lay in front of us.

Psalm 119:97 KJV - O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

I want to be like the Psalmist who not only asks for open eyes to behold wondrous things, but I want to have a love for the Word of God, and I want that love to drive me to read more, memorize more and meditate more.  

God grant me a holy curiosity, a taste for your Word, so much so that I crave the delights it holds. Let me not be satisfied with a quick reading of a few verses in a hurried quiet time. Help me to meditate on them, dig deeper, be comforted and helped by them and stand in awe of the beauty and wonder I find in the treasure that is your Word.

 

Psalm 119:92-93 KJV - Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.