How to read the Bible without getting overwhelmed
The Bible is open, but my brain is a million other places. Have you ever been overwhelmed by the Bible? I get asked this question all the time, "Where do I start?" I'd love to say "start with the genealogies in Numbers!" But the reality is, it has nothing to do with where you read in the Bible. It has to do with your intimacy with God.
There are a million different reasons why we read the Bible, but I'd submit it's to know God and to know Him better, to grow in intimacy with God. When this is our priority, the Bible comes alive no matter where we start reading.
If this is my framework for approaching the Bible, I have to start with prayer. Before I ever dove into studying and learning the Bible, I had to develop my prayer life. Here are three helpful ways to approach prayer before reading the Word.
Give it time: I find that the quiet place must be in my own heart first before I try to develop an external space with Him. This takes time. I'd suggest giving 5-15 minutes for prayer with God before you read the Word. This time allows the Holy Spirit to meet you where you're at and recognize your anxieties, or to bring up anything He may want to talk to you about.
Be honest with where you're at: There's no need to strive; you're loved as you are. Romans 5:8 "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This allows us to be honest with our struggles and be vulnerable with Him.
Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you: I love to do this, in my time of prayer, if there is anything He has put on my heart or where He may be challenging me to grow in, I love to ask Him to teach me or touch on it in my time in the Word.
(Bonus tip) Pray the text: If you come across something in the text that really stands out, don't worry about finishing your reading. Pray the text out loud and use the topic of the verse as a prompt for your prayer to the Lord.
Prayer is the foundation of reading the Bible. In many Bible-reading guides, prayer is rightly the first step, but it can become a means to an end rather than something deeply valuable and important in and of itself.
