Soul Food - Part 3.7: How to Read the Bible

Part 3.5 was about prayer. This one is about the other half of what it means to spend real time with God — actually opening His Word and letting it do something in you.

Most people who grew up in the church have a complicated relationship with Bible reading. Either it was drilled into them as a duty and became mechanical, or it never stuck at all and now carries a low-grade guilt. Neither of those is what God had in mind.

So let’s start with what the Bible actually says about itself — because that changes everything about how you approach it.

What the Bible Says About Itself

Scripture Is God-Breathed — Treat It That Way

Before you can build a real Bible reading life, you need to understand what you are actually holding.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” — 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NASB 1995)

Inspired by God. The Greek word is theopneustos — God-breathed. Not “contains useful wisdom” or “has some good principles for living.” Every word breathed out by God Himself.

That changes how you approach it entirely. When you open the Bible, you are not consuming content. You are sitting with the living voice of God who knows you completely, loves you entirely, and is actively working in your life. Every word carries weight because of who wrote it.

The text says Scripture is profitable for four things: teaching you what is true, correcting what you believe that is false, training you in how to actually live, and equipping you for the specific work God has for you. That is not a list of peripheral benefits. That is a description of how God does the deep formation work in a human soul.

The Word Is Living — It Is Not Static

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” — Hebrews 4:12 (NASB 1995)

Living and active. The Bible is not a historical document that once carried power. It carries power now — in the room you are sitting in, on the page you are reading today. The same passage you read six months ago can land completely differently today because you are different and God knows exactly what you need to hear right now.

I have experienced this firsthand. I will read a passage, take notes, feel like I got what it had to give — and then come back to it a few weeks later and get something completely different out of it. Not because the text changed. Because I did. God knows exactly where you are and what you need to hear, and He will meet you in the same verse differently every single time.

This is why you cannot read the Bible like a textbook you finish. You never finish it. You return to it because it returns something different to you every time.

The Word Is Your Navigation System

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” — Psalm 119:105 (NASB 1995)

A lamp to your feet shows you the next step. A light to your path shows you the direction. This is exactly how Scripture functions in your actual life — not always giving you the full picture all at once, but giving you enough to take the next step faithfully and enough to see where you are headed.

Most people want the whole map before they move. God tends to give you a lamp. Enough light to be obedient now.

There are probably two reasons for that. The first is faith. If God showed you the full picture, you would not need to trust Him to get there. The step-by-step nature of how He reveals things is not a limitation. It is an invitation to depend on Him for the next step rather than running ahead on your own. The second is grace. Some of what God has planned for your life — the trials, the growth, the places He is going to take you — you could not handle seeing all at once. He reveals what you need when you need it because He knows you better than you know yourself.

Meditation Is the Goal — Not Consumption

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” — Joshua 1:8 (NASB 1995)

Three things here. First, day and night — this is not a once-a-week encounter. It is a continuous return. Second, meditate — not skim, not speed-read, not consume like content. Meditation in the Hebrew sense is chewing on something. Turning it over. Letting it sit. Coming back to it throughout the day. Third, the outcome — not wealth or comfort in the way we think about it, but the ability to walk in faithful obedience, which is where God says real prosperity is found.

The goal of reading the Word is not information. It is transformation that produces faithfulness.

The Man Who Meditates on the Word

Psalm 1 paints a picture of what this actually produces in a person over time.

“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” — Psalm 1:1–3 (NASB 1995)

A tree planted by water does not strain to produce fruit. It produces fruit because of what it is rooted in. The fruit is the natural result of the root system.

That is the picture of a person who is consistently in the Word. Not someone who performs spiritually or has impressive knowledge — someone who is so rooted in God that the fruit just comes. The stability, the fruitfulness, the leaf that does not wither even in hard seasons — those are downstream of the root.

You build the root system by showing up to the Word consistently, over years, not by having extraordinary quiet times occasionally.

What Real Bible Reading Actually Looks Like

Everything above is what God says. So what do you actually do with it?

1. Pray Before You Read

This is simple but it changes everything.

Before you open the Bible, ask God to open your eyes to what He wants you to see.

“Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law.” — Psalm 119:18 (NASB 1995)

You are not studying alone. You have the Holy Spirit with you — who, as Jesus promised, will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). Asking Him to lead before you read is not a formality. It is an acknowledgment of who is actually doing the teaching.

This single habit shifts the posture from studying to receiving. Those are not the same thing.

2. Read Consistently — One Chapter Is Enough

The biggest mistake people make when building a Bible reading life is starting too big. Three chapters a day sounds good until life gets hard and then the whole thing collapses under the weight of the streak you broke.

One chapter a day, every day, is more spiritually formative than seven chapters on Sunday.

Consistency is what builds the root system. Not volume. You are not trying to get through the Bible as fast as possible. You are trying to stay in ongoing contact with the God who wrote it. That requires showing up regularly — not just showing up impressively.

3. Ask Two Questions Every Time You Read

When you read a passage, ask two questions and write down your answers.

What does this reveal about who God is?

Every passage of Scripture — including the genealogies, the law codes, the prophetic warnings — reveals something about the character, nature, or ways of God. Before you figure out what a passage means for your life, you need to see what it reveals about Him. This keeps your Bible reading theologically grounded instead of just moralistic.

What does this ask of me?

Not how does this apply to humans in general — but how does this apply to me, in my actual life, this week? What belief needs to change? What action needs to follow? What sin needs to be addressed?

James 1:22–25 is a warning about reading without the second question:

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” — James 1:22–25 (NASB 1995)

Reading and walking away unchanged is self-deception, James says. The Word is a mirror. The point is not to admire it — it is to let it show you what needs to change.

4. Write Down What You Receive

You do not need a structured system. You do not need a fancy journal or a five-column observation chart. But writing down what God shows you matters.

Here is why: you will forget it.

Not because you are careless — but because the pace of life buries things quickly. Writing it down is an act of stewardship. It says this was worth holding onto.

Even a single sentence after reading — a takeaway, a question, a verse that landed differently today — is enough. Over time you will build a record of what God has been doing in your mind and heart through the Word. That record becomes its own kind of evidence of His faithfulness across seasons of your life.

5. Let Hard Passages Sit — Do Not Skip Them

There will be passages that confuse you. Passages that seem to contradict something else you have read. Passages in the OT that feel distant or difficult. Passages that confront something in you that you would rather not look at.

Do not skip them. Let them sit.

Some of the most formative things God has done in people through Scripture has happened in the passages they initially did not want to engage with. The discomfort is often the point. The confusion is an invitation to go deeper, not a sign that the text has nothing to offer.

Write down what confused you. Ask God about it. Come back to it. Bring it to a pastor or someone further along in their faith. The hard passages are not obstacles to your Bible reading life — they are part of it.

6. Read the Whole Bible — Not Just Your Favorite Parts

It is natural to gravitate toward the books that feed you most. The Psalms, the Gospels, Paul’s letters — these are deeply personal and accessible. But a Bible reading life that only visits comfortable territory eventually produces a thin theology and a small view of God.

The OT is where you learn the full weight of God’s holiness. The prophets will wreck you in the best way if you let them. The wisdom literature will reshape how you think about work, money, relationships, and time. Even the parts that feel dry are building something — a foundation of understanding that makes everything else make more sense.

Read broadly. Read slowly. Trust that God knew what He was doing when He gave us all of it, not just the parts that feel immediately relevant.

7. Do Not Wait Until You Feel Like It

Feelings follow action, not the other way around.

On the days you do not feel like opening the Bible, those are often the days you most need to. The dryness is not evidence that the Word has nothing to offer. It is almost always evidence that you have been absent from it long enough that the connection has grown thin.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Seeking implies consistency even when it is not exciting. It implies showing up on the hard days.

Some of the most significant things God has ever said to me through Scripture came on days I did not feel like reading at all. Show up anyway.

The Goal Is Not Knowledge — It Is Knowing Him

You can know the Bible well and not know God well. That is a real danger for people who grew up in the church. Knowledge about God is not the same as knowing Him.

The goal of your Bible reading life is not to become more informed. It is to be more formed — shaped into the image of Christ, rooted deeply enough that the fruit comes naturally, sensitive enough to His voice that the lamp keeps showing you the next step.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” — James 4:8 (NASB 1995)

Open the Word and you are drawing near. He will meet you there.

Every single time.