How To Know God
The Life-Changing Habit of Daily Bible Reading
Getting to Know God: Why Time with Him Matters
If you really want to get to know someone, what do you do?
You spend time with them. You ask them questions. What’s your name? Where do you live? What kinds of things do you like? What don’t you like? You actually listen to what that say and how they say it. That’s how you build a relationship.
This is why the number one practice for Christian spiritual growth and maturity has to be daily Bible reading. Kyle Strobel says spiritual formation is about God and abandoning your life to Him. The goal is not your formation, but God. Spiritual formation is not life-hacks, looking inward, or earning something; but looking at who God is and abiding in Him. When we do that, we are changed.
Why should we strive to read the Bible daily? Because that’s how we get to know who Jesus is. Reading the Bible is how we know and understand God.
And God wants us to know Him and draw near to Him. That’s why He gives us His Word. It’s objective. You don’t have to guess who He is. You don’t have to use any mystical techniques. He tells us who He is, who we are, and how we can be in relationship.
Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
God delights in us knowing and understanding Him. It’s what we were made for. We are to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. You can only do that if you know Him.
The Bible: God’s Revelation to Us
After the resurrection, two disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus. Jesus shows up and walks with them, but they don’t know it’s Him. They’re sad and confused about the crucifixion. He asked them what has been going on the last few days, and they explain the events.
He says, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25-27)
When they sit down to eat and He prays and hands them bread, their eyes are opened to who He is and He disappears.
They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32)
They felt like their hearts were burning as he explained the scriptures to them and how all of the scripture points to Him.
The Apostle John begins his gospel with the following:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:1-3)
John writes a few verses later, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
God is holy and unapproachable, so the only way we can see Him or know Him is if He chooses to reveal himself to us. His greatest act of revelation is Jesus, the living Word. That’s what He was saying in the synagogue in Luke 4. I’m here. God with you.
We don’t live in first century Israel during Jesus’ time, so the way for us to know Him is through the Bible, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. He’s not just in the New Testament. He’s throughout the entire Bible. It all points to Jesus, which is what He told the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Daily Bible Reading: The Key to Spiritual Growth
One of my favorite quotes from Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life is this:
No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture.
Our main spiritual sustenance must be the Word of God. Jesus said, “Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Mt 4:4) He often questioned people about their understanding of scripture. He would say, “Have you not read?” (Matt 19:4, Mark 12:10) Jesus assumed the people claiming to be the children of God actually read God’s Word.
Another reason we need to be reading the Bible daily is to protect us from false teaching and deception. Jesus and the Apostles tell us repeatedly in the New Testament to beware false teaches. The way the treasury department trains agents to spot counterfeit bills is they handle real money all day. When you know what the real thing feels like and looks like, you immediately know a fake.
You can’t tell if you’re being deceived if you don’t know the truth yourself. The devil’s first trick was asking Eve did God really say? So, we need to know what God actually said.
You might say, “Well, is this really a big deal today? Are there people out there preaching and teaching and writing books about God that are deceiving people?” The answer is 100% yes.
You don’t have to look far to find so-called preachers who don’t preach the Bible. The number one red flag is a preacher who says, “God told me.” We don’t need extra revelation. We don’t need a new word. God has given us the Bible, which is sufficient for everything we need. You can read it for yourself.
The Bible truly is miraculous. We’ve lost our sense of that because it is so available to us in our time. It is 66 books written over 1600 years in three languages by 40 different authors from all walks of life— kings, shepherds, fishermen, doctors, tax collectors. It was composed on 3 continents. Yet, it is consistent in its theme and message.
Only God could do that. There is no other book like it. Justin Peters said, “If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read it out loud.”
Practical Steps to Start a Daily Bible Reading Habit
How do we cultivate the habit of reading the Bible every day?
Set aside time every day.
One of the best things you can do to create a daily rhythm is read the Word at the same time every day. Make it part of your schedule. Many people read it first thing in the morning.
In his book “The Common Rule,” Justin Whitmel Earley, sets daily habits and weekly habits. One of the first daily habits is “Scripture Before Phone.” He calls this a habit of resistance. He writes how as soon as he woke up he was drawn to his phone to check his schedule, his email, check the news, scroll through his Facebook feed. Whatever those things dictated would set the mood for his day.
He says, “The question is whether we let Scripture or the media calibrate our morning identity.” That plays out through the rest of the day. So, if possible resist the urge to go to your phone or computer or to turn on the TV before you’ve read Scripture.
If you’re reading the Bible on your phone, that’s great. But resist the urge to open Facebook or Instagram or whatever and start scrolling. Get in the habit of opening your Bible app first thing. My wife says, “Word before world.” First thing, she makes her coffee, sits down at the kitchen table, and reads the passage for the day.
But maybe mornings aren’t good for you. That’s fine. I do my reading at night right before bed. Just find a consistent quiet time during the day, minimize distractions, and read. It may be a lunch break, waiting in line to pick the kids up from school, or when you put the kids down for a nap. Find the right time for you.
The number one excuse people give for not reading the Bible is they don’t have time. People look at a two-thousand page book and say there’s no way I have time for that. Yet, the average person checks his or her phone 144 times a day and spends 7 hours a day watching a screen.
In contrast, if you wanted to read the whole Bible in a year, all you need is 12 minutes a day. If you want to read the whole thing in 6 months, you just need 25 minutes a day. Surely, we can find 12 minutes a day out of the 7 hours we’re looking at our screens. You can even read it on your screen if you’re using a Bible app. So, not having time to read the Bible is a bogus excuse.
Use a Reading Plan
It is much easier to cultivate a habit if you have a plan and strategy you can follow. Just like training for a marathon, if you say I’m just going to go out and run every day with no progression plan, you’re not going to be very effective. Most people who just open the Bible and read a random passage daily struggle to make it a daily practice.
There are a ton of plans out there. You’ve probably heard this saying, “What’s the best Bible translation? The one you’ll read.” It’s the same with Bible reading plans. The best one is the one you’ll read.
The youversion Bible app has a ton of plans. So, if you pick up your phone first thing in the morning, open the Bible app and read your plan. If you’re not into apps, you can find a plan to print out and fold it to keep in your Bible.
There are a lot of options out there. You can read the whole Bible in a year. I’ve seen plans to read the whole thing in 2 years or 3 years. You can read it chronologically in the order that it was written. There are plans that do some NT and some OT each day. There are plans that do five days a week and give the weekends off. The crucial thing is that you read it.
Here are some resources:
Read the Bible in Context
What does it mean to read the Bible in context? It means to read it as it was written and meant to be read. The Bible contains poems, histories, biographies, letters, and philosophy. For example, Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians as a letter. Read it like you would read a letter. You wouldn’t read a few sentences from the middle of a letter and then put it away. You would read it from beginning to end to fully understand what the writer is saying.
You don’t have to read the whole letter in one setting. That may mean you take a whole week to read through that letter. That’s fine. That may even be better if it helps you really understand, but you should work your way through the book of the Bible to get the full context and point.
The Bible is not a random collection of verses or sayings. Verse numbers weren’t added until the 1500s. The only book in the Bible that’s close to a collection of sayings is Proverbs, and even parts of that are extended thoughts on certain topics.
I know there are really good devotionals that give you a verse or two and then some insightful things to think about. People love their devotionals. There are also really bad devotionals that take the scripture out of context and twist it into a life-hack or pithy self-help motto. Devotionals are like candy. They’re easy and sweet, but if that’s all you eat you’re not going to be healthy.
You don’t have to give up your good devotionals. I would say add to your devotional reading by reading through entire books of the Bible in context, at whatever pace you need. The important thing is you get in the habit of reading it daily in context.
Don’t Get Discouraged
If you miss a few days, so what? Reading the Bible is not a legalistic requirement. Spiritual formation is not a checklist. No one is keeping score. It’s also okay if you don’t fully understand everything you read.
No one just woke up knowing everything about the Bible. In fact, most people who have been reading the Word for decades will say they learn something new from it all the time. It’s deep. We will never exhaust it’s riches, because we can never exhaust God’s riches.
Ask God to help you understand it and apply it. He will answer that prayer. He wants you to know Him. As believers we have the Holy Spirit, who guides and teaches us. Even when you think you didn’t get anything out of it, the Word is working.
All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Don’t get discouraged. If you miss a few days, you just pick it up and move forward. There are no demerits. There’s no shame in this. Life happens. You’re going to forget some days. Something out of the ordinary is going to throw your daily rhythm off. It’s okay. Pick it up tomorrow and go again.
Commit to the Practice
With any relationship, you have to be committed to spending time with the other person. You have to be committed to getting to know them to the point you often forget about yourself. This is why the Bible often uses the metaphor of marriage to describe our relationship with God. We have to be committed to knowing God.
The key way we do that is by reading His Word and listening to who He says He is. When our Christian life is centered on God, who He is, and the gospel, we begin to abide in Him. We begin to see our sin the way He sees it. We begin to understand what He gives to us and what he does for us, and we become more like Christ. As Kyle Strobel says, the odd dynamic of Christian growth, unlike worldly growth, is you’re often the last one to know you’ve grown. The Word does not return void.
Time in his word matters so much!