(This is part 1 of a 5 part series on spiritual disciplines, check out part 2, part 3, part 4 & part 5)
Do you remember the first book you ever read on your own?
For me, it was Clifford the Big Red Dog!
When you first learn to read you learn to sound out individual letters. It sounds like:
Ccccc llllllllll iiiiiiiiiii fffffff ooooooo rrrrrrdddd
After a while you can pick up parts of words together so it sounds like:
Cliffffff – orrrddd
Eventually, you don’t read individual words anymore. You just see them. In fact, you can see whole phrases at once. Congratulations! You can read!
When it comes to reading the Bible I’m concerned many of us get stuck in the sounding out phase and never move on to more mature reading. That’s why so many people describe the Bible as complicated, confusing, and difficult to read. They get bored with the Bible because they haven’t learned to read it.
The start of the new year means most of you are probably picking up a One year Bible or starting through a plan on your YouVersion app.
While those are great at getting you started, I want to help you level up your Bible reading this year to help you get even more out of it!
You need a guide.
No one would suggest you hand a 5-year-old a college textbook and expect them to pick it up on their own. We all learned to read because there was a teacher or parent that guided us along. They taught us how to put together sounds and how punctuation worked.
In the same way, it’s unfair and unrealistic to hand someone the Bible and expect them to get a ton out of it on their own at first.
That’s where commentaries come in.
A good commentary and a way to take notes makes all the difference in your devotional life.
When I first trusted Christ I bought a study Bible and read through almost all the commentary at the bottom. It was like having a seasoned pastor sitting next to me answering my questions as I went along!
To this day I rarely read the Bible without a commentary close by. I will reference the notes to answer questions I have and gain further insight into each passage.
Most people I know log on to various free commentaries available on a couple of websites. Those can be okay, but you get what you pay for. You also have to be very careful about what theology is being represented.
This January I am reading through Luke using John MacArthur’s Bible commentary. It’s a conservative, pastoral commentary; which means it’s more focused on the application to your life than technical into the Greek words, etc.
I’m also using the ESV Scripture Journal to take notes on each passage. It has the scriptures on one page and a blank page next to it to take notes.
(*note: If you click on the Amazon affiliate links above and make a purchase I will earn a small commission from those purchases. It helps me keep this site going!)
Here’s how I do it:
I’ll break up each passage into sections.
I’ll read the section a couple of times and try to make observations. I’ll underline, box, circle or bracket things that stand out to me. I’m specifically looking for repetitions and descriptions.
After that, I will read through the commentary. It walks through each passage verse by verse and gives insight. This is a great way to take notes on the passage in your journal.
I highly recommend taking notes. I never get much out of it if I don’t.
Try to end each day with one main thought or application. Take that thought and make that your prayer!
This gives you a guide and a plan! That’s a great habit to start this year.
If you work all the way through a book of the Bible like Luke you will have such a greater understanding of God’s Word. You’ll have moved on from the “sounding out letters and words” phase to a whole new level of reading and studying your Bible.
I promise you’ll be motivated to pick the next book of the Bible to study and keep going!!
Let me know if you jump in with me! I would love to share some highlights of the things I’ve been learning!
You can grab these resources by clicking on them!
