Feeling Discouraged in Reading Your Bible? Try these tips!

By: Melanie Moore

Ah, January 1st, the day I always pull out my new planner and think about all of the goals I have for the year. Everything seems possible as I stare at the clean, blank slate of the new year. 

Now, I'm looking at the halfway mark of the year coming up... June 1. That date fills me with a bit of disappointment for the goals that I haven't made as much progress on as I would have liked. 

For example, one of my main goals this year was to read the entire Bible through in a year. However, sometime in March, life got a little crazy, and unfortunately, so did my daily Bible reading. As I worked to catch up to the date I was "supposed to" be reading, I kept feeling more and more discouraged. 

However, I realized that having some examination points along the path to a goal can be quite helpful. Rather than giving up on my goal, I just needed to think about my approach. What has been working well? What hasn't been working well? What can I adjust from what I have learned over the first half of the year?

If you are feeling discouraged or "behind" in your Bible reading, I hope some of the ideas I came up with for myself will work for you as well!

Alter Your Bible Reading Plan

I realized that as much as I like the idea of reading passages from multiple books of the Bible every day, it was hard for me to constantly switch gears mentally. Having identified this, I decided to print off a list of all the books of the Bible and read one at a time (in any order). This gave me flexibility and took away the dates that were constantly causing me anxiety! Give yourself permission to change things up in a way that works for you!

Alter Your Bible Reading Method

If you are someone who loves to read, like me, perhaps directly reading the Bible is the best approach for you. However, if you are someone who prefers to listen, perhaps listening to an audio Bible would work better for you. 

What about the time of day that you normally read the Bible? If you are not a morning person, feel no shame! (I never read my Bible in the morning, or I would not remember a word! I actually prefer to read in the evenings when I can really focus on the Word.) Think about what time of day you read, the location you normally use, etc. to see if there are minor adjustments you can make to get more out of your time in the Word.

Alter Your Bible Reading Perspective

Bible reading is all about getting to know God for who He is. It's not about checking "Daily Bible reading" off our "To Do" list each day. I realized that if my goal of finishing the Bible in a year is causing me to rush through God's Word just so that I can check it off my list, I need to change my perspective (or change my goal). 

I hope that these tips might be helpful to you! Please feel free to add your ideas to the comments below!