Chapter 1: What practical steps should I take to prepare for reading the Bible?
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. As we get ready to launch into Genesis, I thought it might be helpful to walk you through some really practical steps for how to read the Bible. I'll give you a bit of a sneak peek into my process in case any of the things I do might be helpful for you.
But that's not to say that what works for me is what will work for you. I want you to find what works best for you. And it may be trial and error for a while. Be patient with yourself. When you start something new, it rarely goes perfectly right out of the gate. Give yourself a First, let's talk about time. When are you going to read the Bible? Set a time for it.
Put it in your calendar so you treat it with respect. For most of my life, I read my Bible at the end of the day because I'm a night owl and it's when I feel most alert. I also would tell myself a convenient lie that it's better for me to read at night because unlike in the morning, I have nowhere to be in the middle of the night so I can stay up as long as I want reading the Bible.
That sounds nice, but that never happened. I just rushed through it, half-focused, while my mind went back to whatever had happened that day. Then I'd go right back to checking social media and replying to emails. And no matter how much I learned during my time in the Word that night, I never remembered it the next day. It would serve me for about 20 minutes until I fell asleep.
It wasn't impacting my thoughts or the way I lived. And I can't speak for anybody else who prefers to read their Bible at night, but personally, I never ever meditated on God's Word in my dreams, if only I were that holy. So I decided to move my Bible reading to the first part of my day just for a week to see if it made a difference.
It wasn't an easy shift since I'd made a pretty solid habit of doing it at night, but I kept at it. I started to see how fruitful it was. And since I'm a results-driven person, that was enough to make me want to build my schedule around that change. So find the time that works best for you. If it's been no time, then any time will be better. There's no shame in the nighttime quiet time game.
But if there is any way at all that your time can be within the first hour or so of waking up, all the better. And I also feel like I need to say this. Some of the people I know who don't read their Bible are some of the most compassionate people I know.
They feel like they can't make time for God because there are so many pressing needs around them, and they want to enter in and help the people in all those spaces. So they give themselves away all the time. And while that's a beautiful way to live, it's also mostly foolish. You will hit a wall. You will come to the end of yourself. You cannot pour out of something that is empty.
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Chapter 2: How can I determine the best time for my Bible reading?
You can't serve others well if you don't recognize your own frailty and need for God first. Get filled before you pour out. You were meant to serve people out of an overflow, not out of a vacuum. So please, for your own spiritual and emotional and relational health, come to Scripture and get your own needs for God met first.
Then you'll have something more life-giving to offer others, and you won't feel as depleted on the other side of it. I know it feels unnatural to you, but I'm asking you to give this a try. Trust God when He says you need Him. Okay, now let's talk about location. Try to find a spot that is just for you and God, even if it's the floor of your closet underneath the winter coats.
Maybe it's in your car in your driveway before you leave for work or in the parking lot at work. Maybe it's when the kids are down for a nap right before you crash too. If at all possible, find a place where you can get alone with him. For some of you, this won't be possible. I realize that. You're never alone because you have two kids under three and they need you constantly.
Listen, I do not get it. I don't understand what your life is like. But he does. And since I know for a fact that he wants time with you, I'm asking him to carve out time for himself in your schedule and to help you make the most of the space he's put you in. I'm asking him to help you focus on himself beyond the distractions that might call for your attention in this season of your life.
We're all in different spots, so there's no shame in this either. You just do the best you can and know that it's huge that you're prioritizing this in your life. What really matters here is that you're setting your heart to learn more about God, to pursue time with Him. Don't expect it to look like anyone else's time with God.
Now that we've got our time and our location, let's talk about our process. Here's what I do. I have the Bible app on the home screen of my phone. It's in the top right corner. I don't want it to get lost on my screen. I've also set up a notification in the app itself that reminds me every morning to read my Bible.
I've set that notification to arrive in the middle of the night so that it's on my screen when I wake up. And since I use my phone as my alarm, that reminder is the first thing I see when I wake up. All I have to do is click on the notification and it takes me to the day's reading. At that point, I'm still in bed.
I might be tempted to check my emails or the weather or Instagram, but I resist the urge. Those things will all still be there after my priority time, which is, by the way, what I call my time with God in the morning. Lots of people call it by other names, quiet time, Jesus time, Bible time, but I had to call it something that reminded me of its position in my life.
Above and beyond anything else in this world, this is my priority. God is my first and foremost. He gets the first fruits of my life and my day. When I open that day's reading plan, I push the play button to have the app read that day's chapters to me aloud. I do this before my feet hit the ground. That's my rule. I want God's words in my ears before my feet are on the floor.
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