How to read the Bible to feed your soul, engage your mind and enrich your life

You know the feeling. You take your Bible from a shelf or the bedside table where it’s been sitting for the last few weeks since the last time you read it, but this time you’re determined to do better. So you brush off the dust and open it with good intentions only to get lost for what seems like the upteenth time in all the strange words, odd names, long sentences and unfamiliar events that seem to fill every page. Then, after plowing through a few chapters you either fall asleep or put it back until curiosity, desperation or guilt drives you to try again.

Does reading the Bible have to be so hard? No, it doesn’t. That’s why in this article I share six keys for reading the Bible in a way that feeds your soul, engages your mind and enriches your life.

Keep the large themes in focus

When you set out to read the Bible, it’s easy to be distracted by all the supernatural experiences, figures, languages and historical movements that make up much of its content. How did God divide the Red Sea in order for the Israelites to journey through it? Who were the Jebusites, Edomites and Amorites? What influence did ancient empires like Egypt, Babylon or Rome exercise on God’s plan for the tiny nation of Israel? How do the original languages of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek effect our understanding of the spiritual truths the two testaments contain?

Those diverse and complex issues—and many others like them—aren’t incidental information. They’re the means of grasping the essential truth that the Bible isn’t a made-up book in a make-believe world but the record of God interacting with people rooted in real time and place. That the encounters happen against the backdrop of actual history tells you that the same God who worked his redemptive purposes in people then can work his way in your life now.

The problem comes when the details become the main thing, like the Bible teacher who was asked about his lessons on the book of Revelation. “I teach about the furniture of heaven and the temperature of hell,” he replied. To be sure, information about heaven’s furnishings and hell’s comfort level is important; but it’s no substitute for Revelation’s greater promise of hope for persecuted believers through Christ’s Second Coming. While I suppose the teacher was technically correct, his focus missed the mark of the book’s broader message.

The Bible tells us about God and his redemptive purposes for the world. It also tells us about ourselves—our origin, our purpose and our destination. Keeping those major themes in mind even as you dig down into the minor details will make your reading more enjoyable and meaningful.

Read the Bible as a single narrative instead of a collection of independent stories

While the Bible reflects different ages, cultures, nationalities and events, it tells a single story. What begins in the book of Genesis continues through the pages of the Old Testament and reaches its high point with the coming of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. The remainder of the New Testament shows how the message of Jesus expanded through the ancient world and, by implication, into the modern world. Finally, the book of Revelation shows how the story ends.

The figures in the Bible drive the narrative. The main character, Jesus, is the focus; indeed, any accurate interpretation of the Bible (Old Testament as well as New Testament) begins and ends with him. Secondary characters—Abraham, Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles to name a few—cast light on the main character. Satan is the enemy who seeks to destroy the main character and keep him from achieving his purpose.

For me as well as many others, the Bible’s narrative coherence is the strongest argument in favor of divine authorship. I see no other explanation for how so many people through so many ages in so many circumstances facing so much opposition could put together such a treasury of coherent spiritual truth. If God had not inspired the writers, the Bible would never have existed.

But the story told by the Bible is more than a story. It’s also the true and accurate description of our nature and place in this world. Created by God for his glory, we have rebelled against our Creator and his purpose for us. But God in his mercy doesn’t leave us in that state and rescues us through his son, Jesus.

When we read the Bible as a single narrative—or in G.K. Chesterton’s memorable phrase, a fairy tale that’s true—we have a wholly different experience than if we read it in bits and pieces. What we discover is that the Bible becomes less of a boring book about religious history and more of a personal invitation to locate the story of our life in its larger story of God and his love.

Nurture an attitude of faith as you read

This is harder than it sounds because the Bible invites us into a different world than the one we live in. Regarding politics, for example, the Bible says that there’s an invisible Kingdom with far greater authority and resources than we can imagine. When it comes to human reason, the foundation of the modern world, the Bible asserts a deeper wisdom because it contains the very words of God. The right to individual autonomy, today’s bedrock conviction that each person can be or do whatever they choose, is contradicted by biblical reality.

The natural way to read the Bible is with a skeptical spirit and to assume that the world it portrays is unreal and unrealistic. After all, who really believes that the invisible Kingdom of God is greater than the visible nation we live in? Or that the technological wonders we enjoy today through the power of human reasoning are less important than the spiritual wisdom the Bible contains? Or that individual autonomy isn’t a good that should be pursued but an evil that should be avoided?

But the Bible itself is clear that its riches aren’t for the skeptical but for those who are willing to step out in faith and receive them.

“Without faith it is impossible to please him [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

We’ll never grasp the power and the promise of the Bible without nurturing the capacity to believe what it says.

Find a version of the Bible that works for you

My first real Bible was given to me by a friend shortly after my conversion. I still have it. Bound in brown leather, it’s held together through the decades, a trait that I haven’t found to be true in the Bibles I’ve bought in more recent years.

It was called the New American Standard Bible, a version known for being rigorously faithful to the original text in both the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament Greek. I valued that trait then as now but soon realized that there was a downside. The language often felt wooden and artificial and at times read more like Black’s Law Dictionary than Holy Scripture. Even so, that Bible became the foundation of my spiritual formation. I wrote study notes in its margins that I still look back on today.

I later moved on to the New International Version because it was more readable. First published in 1978, it quickly became the standard translation in the English speaking world because of its general accuracy to the original manuscripts and ease in reading. Since its original publication it’s been updated twice, in 1984 and 2011. I used the NIV for years until its newer editions left me behind. Each time, I felt that the “updates” were really “downgrades” and consisted mainly of watering down key biblical concepts.

I finally landed on the English Standard Version, a Bible with a more conservative perspective. I’ve used it ever since and found it to be perfect for personal devotion, teaching and preaching.

Everybody is different, so don’t feel that you have to read the same version of the Bible as me or anyone else. Pick one or several versions of the Bible that appeal to your reading tastes and resonate with your experience.

Orient yourself to the Bible’s World

The modern world is so different from the biblical world that it’s easy to think there’s no connection between them. Take the Old Testament for example. Thirty-nine books so filled with history, prophecies, people, poetry and hard to understand laws that it makes your head swim as you try to keep up. And the New Testament, while not quite as complicated, holds its own challenges for the reader. Its twenty-seven books tell the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection before moving on to describe the radical impact he makes on the world then and now. The New Testament concludes with the promise of Jesus’ ultimate victory over Satan.

How do you bridge the gap between the biblical world where God’s hand is so clearly at work and the modern world where rationalism and materialism seem to be the only things that matter?

First, find a church that accepts the Bible’s worldview. The Bible was never meant to be read only in isolation but within the community of the church. In fact, it was the church itself that, early in its history, recognized and celebrated God’s Word; and even today, the Bible is best read and understood as part of a worshiping community. The more you hear the truth of the Bible from preachers and teachers, the more likely you are to read it for yourself in ways that engage your attention and impact your life.

Second, invest in some resources that can orient you to a biblical worldview. The best-selling ESV Study Bible is a good place to start. Another option is the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. But whatever books, teachers or online authorities you consult in order to get more familiar with the Bible’s history and context, you’ll find a deeper appreciation for its teaching.

Take your time in reading

Read slowly. That’s right, just slow down the speed of your reading. Instead of trying to get through an allotted number of verses or chapters at a time, adopt a more leisurely approach and force yourself to consider one word at a time. It might even help to use a pointer of some kind so that your eyes don’t run ahead. Don’t get me wrong. Reading plans have their place, especially if you’re trying to read through the Bible in a year (a worthy goal) or follow a devotional guide with daily Scripture assignments (there are many good guides out there). But the downside of those plans is how the scheduled readings tend to become the goal for each day instead of hearing a word from God.

The monks of the Middle Ages called it “Lectio Divina” or “Holy Reading” because of how this manner of reading allowed them to savor each word and meditate on its application to their lives. Unhurried reading, they learned, had a way of breathing life into Scripture unmatched by any other approach.

I think they were on to something. I read through the little book of James a while back, a book packed with spiritual wisdom with lots to offer modern day believers. I’ve read it many times before; but this time I wasn’t in a hurry. I thought through each word and found it a totally different experience.

For example, when I came to Chapter 3 and its well known contrast between God’s wisdom and the selfish ambition that so fills the modern world, I saw something I had never noticed before. Verse 13 speaks of something called “the meekness of wisdom,” a phrase that caught my attention to the degree that it felt as if the Holy Spirit had something especially important for me to learn. My spirit immediately came to attention.

I know what “wisdom” is, I thought to myself, and the different attributes that are attached to godly wisdom. But I’ve never considered “meekness” to be one of those attributes. In fact, I’ve often observed the opposite to be the case as people I thought to be wise adopted attitudes of pride and arrogance. Then, as I meditated on that troubling spiritual evolution, the truth hit me. Maybe there are places in my life, I acknowledged, where I have allowed whatever wisdom I have in pastoral leadership to lead me into arrogance when God expected me instead to show meekness. That moment of insight would have been lost if I hadn’t taken the time to carefully weigh each word in the passage.

Reading the Bible doesn’t have to put you to sleep. Instead, it can be interesting, engaging, informative, encouraging, convicting and life-giving. The six keys in reading we’ve looked at in this article can help you discover the Bible in the same way.

This article is an edited form of a past article.