The Bible tells the story of God’s redemption.
It gives us guidance in our daily walk. It grounds us and through its lens it’s easier to discern what is true in the world.
The word of God reveals his character. What we believe about his character informs how we engage with God.
We want people to engage with us based on an understanding of who we are and not based on their assumptions. If we desire a rich relationship with our creator, it would be wise to apply this same thinking to our engagement with God.
The best place to begin to understand his character is to go to the source He has given us – the Bible.
And yet, according to Barna, 27% of Americans never read their Bible and only 13% read it every day?
In 2025, I want to challenge us to be in the word more consistently so that we can know God better. Are you up for the challenge?
Thinking about our schedules and making time to read our Bible more consistently can be daunting, so let’s get really practical for a couple of minutes.
One of the biggest challenges is to find something we are already doing that we can give up – or a portion of – to make time for something else we want to do. In this case, reading the word. Here’s some things you can do to help your planning.
- Examine the load of our day. What non-essential activities take up our time? Here’s a few ideas: tv watching, fiction reading, video or board gaming, a hobby, or shopping for fun. And more. My biggest non-essential time consumers have been watching TV and reading. Now it’s your turn. What anon-essential activities do you enjoy?
- How much time do you spend on these activities daily or weekly?
- Decide What your goals are. How often/how long do you want to spend in the word? How much of the Bible do you want to read this year?
- Choose a path to meet your goal. Considering what non-essentials take up part of your day, where can you make room to read the Bible?
Did you know there are 1,189 chapters in Bible? And if you want to read the whole Bible in a year, you only need to read 3.25 chapters a day. And according to this article on International Christian College and Seminary, “54 to 72 hours seems to be the accepted pace to read the Bible straight through.”
Using that estimate, if you read the Bible for just 15 minutes a day, you could read the entire Bible in 288 days (36.87 weeks). Or if you spend 30 minutes a day, you could read the entire Bible in 144 days (20.57 weeks).
And listening to the Bible counts! You can do this when you can’t sit down and focus on reading (while driving, doing dishes, folding clothes, etc).
There is no condemnation here. I’ve been in seasons where being in the word has not been at the top of my priority list. Sometimes just because I wasn’t being intentional.
And there ARE seasons where time to read the word seems like a dream (parenthood, sickness, etc) and we sustain ourselves on what we have already written on our hearts. This is another reason to make time for the word when we do have a choice.
And remember, reading the Bible isn’t just “being in the word” it’s about depositing the word into your heart.
