Everyone says, “It’s important for Christians to read their Bibles,” but few actually know what that means or how that looks in everyday life. Most people know, even if they aren’t Christians, that it is best practice for Christians to read their Bibles. I am not a Muslim or a Mormon, but I suspect that it is important for Muslims to be familiar with the Quran and Mormons to be familiar with the Book of Mormon! It isn’t a secret that Christians should be reading their Bibles.
But what does it look like for Christians to read their Bibles? How does this look on a Tuesday morning for the Christian going about his or her everyday life?
This practice of regular Bible reading is often called “daily devotions,” and Daily Devotion is one of the seven rhythms of Rooted because of its central importance to discipleship. Acts 2:42 says that followers of Jesus “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” For us, who don’t have the apostles of Jesus among us today, this looks like Bible reading.
"Daily Devotion," or regular Bible reading, isn’t complicated. But it does require a measure of intentionality. Let’s first look at what daily devotion is and what it isn’t.
What Daily Devotion Is (and Isn’t)
Daily devotion is not meant to be some kind of Christian chore, or a box that we check in an effort to obey and earn God’s favor. That isn’t how this, or any part of the Christian faith, works. Regular Bible reading doesn’t even require some kind of well-established knowledge of the Bible, how it was written, or its theological underpinnings.
Daily devotion is a daily rhythm of reading, meditating on (or thinking about), and applying God’s Word to our lives. Scripture is not meant to simply inform us about who God is, even as much as it does that. The Bible is also meant to form us into the image of Christ, leading us to love others as He has loved us.
Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness.” Sometimes it can be difficult to understand or apply the Bible to our lives, but that’s okay. Not every Bible reading session is going to be insightful just as every meal we eat is not going to be delicious—but we still need to eat.
So, then, how do we actually do this? What does it look like to read the Bible aregular, or engage in the rhythm of “daily devotion”?
3 Simple Frameworks for Daily Devotion
If you find yourself unsure how to read the Bible amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life, you are not alone. Trust me, I’ve struggled with this many times. I find that it’s best to always start with a plan. Work from a Bible reading plan, or at the very least use the same Bible reading method every time you sit down to read. I find myself most frustrated when I open my Bible with no thought about where I’m going to read or what I’m going to do once I have read.
If you’ve never considered a Bible reading method before, here are a few that many have found helpful:
1. The HEAR Method
HEAR stands for: highlight, explain, apply, and reflect.
The first step, “highlight,” means to find a verse or short passage you find and literally highlight it or perhaps copy it down in a journal. Simply enough.
The second step, “explain,” means exactly what it says: do your best to explain the verse in your own words. How would you explain the verse you highlighted to your spouse or a friend? Re-write the verse in your own words or explain what it means in your mind.
Third, is “apply.” This one is also quite simple: how might you apply your highlighted verse to your life? What would look differently in your life today if you lived like what that verse says is true? Do you need to apologize to someone? Is there a friend you should call and pray for? How can you live out the verse you’ve highlighted?
Finally, “reflect” or “respond” to the highlighted verse in prayer. Pray and ask God to help you understand or apply the verse. Pray and ask God to show Himself to you through your reading of the Bible. Pray a prayer in response to what you’ve read.
It’s that simple! I have used this method in my personal Bible reading for a long time and have seen the Lord work wonders in my own Bible reading and prayer life as a result.
2. The SOAP Method
I’m not going to write much about this one, because it’s pretty much the same as the HEAR method, just with a slightly different acronym!
SOAP stands for: Scripture, observation, application, and prayer.
The practices and principles for each of the four steps of the method are virtually the same as for the HEAR method, just with different words. Pick your favorite acronym!
3. The Three Rs: Read, Reflect, Respond
If the first two methods weren’t simple enough for you, maybe this one will work even better for you! Some use the Three Rs Bible reading method: read, reflect, and respond.
This is a simpler and more general method. Here are what the three steps of this method look like:
First, find a passage to read. Select a manageable passage, maybe a chapter. One chapter or one paragraph read closely is better than many chapters skimmed.
Second, reflect on the passage you’ve read. Some prefer to call this “meditation,” though that can sometimes be confused with other religious practices. The point here is to slow down and think about what the Scripture means and how it applies to your life (like the middle two steps of the above methods).
Third and finally, respond to what you’ve read. This aligns closely with the final step of the four-step methods mentioned above.
However you decide to read the Bible regularly, what matters most is just showing up. God will meet you there in His Word and in your reflection on His Word. But how does this look in everyday life?
What This Looks Like in Everyday Life
Okay, so beyond Bible reading methods, how does daily devotion actually happen in real life? We’re all so busy. Many of us lack free time to read anything, let alone the Bible, which can sometimes feel like quite a daunting and confusing book.
First, the reality is that we all probably have more free time than we often think we do. Before we assume we don’t have any time to read the Bible (or read at all), we would be wise to check the screen time app on our phones and check how much time we spend scrolling our preferred social media platforms.
But the key here is this: if we want to have time to read the Bible, we need to prioritize it. We need to be intentional about it. Daily devotion requires intentionality. For many, myself included, this means waking up a bit earlier in the morning than is maybe preferred to make time for Bible reading before the day gets away and busyness takes over.
I have two young daughters who are often up before seven o’clock in the morning, and then I go to work and the day moves along. So, I decided long ago to wake up around five o’clock in the morning to have plenty of time to read my Bible, pray, and read other books I’m interested in. Every morning, the alarm goes off, and a decision is made to either prioritize my daily devotion or choose more sleep instead. It requires intentionality to prioritize time with God in reading and prayer.
Everyone’s schedule is different, though. Maybe your day is less busy later in the evening and you can reliably read the Bible before bed. Or maybe you get a dedicated lunch break at work that consistently provides you time and space to read and pray.
Whenever you decide it is best for you to consistently show up, read your Bible, and pray, pick that time and guard it. Be intentional about it. Prioritize it. We make time for what we want to have time for.
Give Yourself Grace and a Place to Start
That said, we need to give ourselves grace. God doesn’t love us any less when we choose to sleep in, and we don’t need to beat ourselves up about missing our daily devotion on any given day. We are not showing up to our Bibles to perform for God, but to get to know Him more. There is no place for guilt when we miss this appointment, but diligence is important!
Maintaining a rhythm of daily devotion isn’t a matter of obedience for God’s favor; it is a matter of hearing from and talking with a Father who loves us. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “You will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.”
Praise God for that truth. What a blessing it is to know that God will show up, even if it’s hard for us to sometimes.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Bible and the rhythm of daily devotion, check out the Rooted Rhythms Bible study on the topic here.
