I could try and pretend I read every day without failure, but that would only be pretending. Yet after a quarter-century of semi-disciplined reading, I’ve come to value the benefit of long-term Bible reading and want to meditate on it here to encourage other start-stop readers.

I did not grow up going to church every week. My parents did not have family worship every evening, or ever that I recall. No adult that I was around on a regular basis read their Bible conspicuously, but even as a kid I knew that my grandmother (“Mamaw” to us) did.

One of my early memories is riding with my mother to pick up Mamaw’s Bible from a bindery where it had gotten a new cover. I didn’t know what bindery was, but I figured out that its cover had gotten worn out because of lots of use, and that knowledge must’ve settled down deep inside me, for it imparted a respect for reading the Bible that I couldn’t explain at the time.

When I was 16, I started going to church and, at a Centrifuge camp in Tennessee, responded to an invitation and shortly thereafter began a humble and halting habit of reading the Bible. That was 1993. I could try and pretend I read every day without failure, but that would only be pretending. Yet after a quarter-century of semi-disciplined reading, I’ve come to value the benefit of long-term Bible reading and want to meditate on it here to encourage other start-stop readers.

Why Re-read it Over and Over?

What’s the point of reading and re-reading the Bible over the span of one’s lifetime? Why is there particular value in investing so much time, which really is the most precious thing we have, on reading and not on some more outward-focused activity?

For one thing, the daily experience of merely living as a sojourner in this world has a calcifying effect on our minds. “Calcification” may not be a word we use often, but vascular surgeons and plumbers use it regularly. Calcification refers to constriction that occurs over time. After 30-40 years, a quarter-inch pipe or your arteries are likely to have a reduced capacity due to the accumulation of “stuff” on the inside.

It’s the same with our minds and hearts.

Simply by living in our world, we accumulate a lot of stuff. Consider your average week: how many disparaging conversations do you overhear? How many sarcastic remarks? How many tempting scenes do you encounter on television, movies, web searches, etc.? How many self-focused thoughts do you fight, some that you win and some you lose? Arguments, frustration, hurt feelings, kids that won’t stay in bed, road rage, arguments with your spouse, arguments with your customers, not to mention the banal things that snatch at our attention.

What effect do these situations have on you? How do they cause you to struggle with gratitude? How do they affect your contentment? How do they shape your devotion? What do they do to your worship? Your heart? Here’s where developing a long-term habit of Bible reading is so vital. Being regularly exposed to the word of God reminds us of what God declares to be true and interprets our experience in the world.

What surrounds us subtly shapes us in ways we may not always appreciate or detect. Slowly, we drift. Regular Bible reading serves as an anchor to ultimate reality. It also serves as a purgative to a world-saturated mind. Regular Bible readers have continual reminders of God’s meticulous works of providence, Jesus’ present lordship, and the Spirit’s real leadership.

Read it All

Spend time in the Old Testament historical narratives and you realize the long-term and extensive consequences of flirting with worldly power structures. Return often to the wisdom literature for regular reminders that this world and all of its beautiful things are really temporary. Develop a habit of reading the Psalms to enrich and expand your vision and vocabulary of prayer. Go to the prophets often to see the consequences of ignoring, or oppressing, the widow, the stranger, or the poor.

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