WHY WE SHOULD READ THE BIBLE EVERYDAY

Hi my friends. You doing okay? Let me share something that has been on my heart real quick. Let’s pretend I’ve not been gone for centuries. Consistency, especially with reading the Bible can be difficult. Here’s what I learned recently that has helped me and may help you. Enjoy.

“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. ²⁰ This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.” Deuteronomy 17:18-20 NLT

A little back story. These verses were instructions from the Lord, through Moses, to the children of Israel when they were just about to inherit the promised land. The Israelites would soon ask for a king and God wanted to teach the future kings how to rule in a way that would cause the people to always prosper in their new home. The words show the importance of the kings constantly having the word of God in their heart. What has the instructions to ancient kings got to do with me then? Glad you asked. Look at this next verse.

“… for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 NLT

If you’re like me and like things explained simply then you’ll love the next sentence. The old testament was basically a string of events that was building up to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We are taught in the new testament that Jesus came to fulfill the law of the old testament and came to lead us to becoming heirs with Him. This is all to say that as the kings of Israel in the old testament were expected by God to live a certain way, so are we, a ROYAL priesthood and joint heirs with Christ, called to live in a certain way as well. The first verse we looked at in Deuteronomy (this is a confusing word to spell btw) gives us the importance of reading our Bibles everyday and keeping the word of God fresh in our minds and hearts daily. Here it is; “his regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way“. Why would God care about us staying away from pride? Well because I think the best way to learn and actually experience change is by admitting we need help and being humble enough to receive it. That’s it. The whole point of Christianity is to be humble enough to be changed by God so we can lead others to that change as well. So let’s read our Bibles daily friends. Without it we won’t even see where the pride within is. I read somewhere once that the Bible is the only book that reads you as you read it. God will use it to change you if you let Him.

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” Romans 8:17 NIV

Bonus tip: I know it can get boring sometimes but what I found was if I tried to do the very same thing over and over, whatever it was, it would get boring. So I try to switch it up. Thankfully this app called “You Version Bible app” has helped a lot with that. It has an audio Bible with great, different voices and background sounds, there are millions of Bible plans on various topics and there are lots of videos daily to help get the word in you but not in a boring way. They say it takes 21 days to build a habit right? I started a Bible plan that lasts 365 days and today is day 65. It has helped so much. Please know also that in spite of all the great resources, we need to make the decision and be willing to be disciplined enough to stick with it else nothing will really work, no matter how helpful.

“I have hidden your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you” Psalm 119:11 NLT

Lord I’m grateful to you for reminding me of the importance of your word being a part of my daily routine. Please help me to stay consistent in reading and allowing you to transform me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This blog post is also available in audio form here https://anchor.fm/enam-heletsi/episodes/Why-we-should-read-the-Bible-everyday-e1fap2h if you’d love to hear me read to you 🙂