8 Reasons to Keep Reading Your Bible
How is your Bible reading going so far in the new year? We’re 8 days into 2025, so I want to provide you with 8 motivating, encouraging, and comforting reasons to keep reading your Bible!
1. The Bible is the greatest tangible gift you have ever been given.
Between the “already” of Christ’s first coming and the “not yet” of his return, besides the presence and grace of the Son through his Spirit, the two greatest gifts God has given us are his Word (so that we would know him and ourselves) and his Church (a place where his Word would be continually explained and applied).
When you hold a physical Bible in your hands, there is no way to overstate the lavish divine love that caused this wonderful book to be recorded and preserved for you so you can read very words of God himself!
2. The Bible is not a collection of stories but one story.
As you look at your Bible, don’t divide it into 66 books, or genres/categories of writing (law, history, prophecy, gospels, etc.), or even Old and New Testament. This, of course, is helpful as you follow a reading plan, but view the Word of God as one overarching story with many chapters. Everything is part of a single narrative.
3. The biblical story has a plot.
Like any great novel, the Bible has a plotline. The biblical story is the story of humanity, what went wrong, and how it is being fixed by divine grace in the gift of Jesus Christ. The plot of the biblical narrative can be summarized with four words:
Creation: God makes beautiful creatures in a beautiful world
Slavery: Sin deceives, seduces, and enslaves us
Redemption: God liberates us from our bondage to sin
Restoration: God makes all things, including us, new again
4. The biblical story has a central character.
In the same way that any story has a plotline, every story has a central character. The Bible is the biography of Jesus. Every passage points to him, cries out for him, prophesies about him, or looks back on what he has done. Look for Jesus on every page of this story!
5. The Bible includes more than a story.
God does not just give us his story but helps us understand what it means and looks like to live in light of it. He has given us his story with explanatory and applicatory notes so that we would know him and, in knowing him, come to know our need of him and seek and celebrate the grace that can be found only in him.
6. The biblical story is the only way to understand your life story.
Scripture, while a story, is not a fictional novel, nor is it merely a historical text. We all look to something to help us understand who we are and what life is about. This is one of the main functions of Scripture; the great story of the Bible has been given by a loving God so that we will make proper sense of the story of our lives.
7. Our stories have been embedded in the larger story of redemption.
Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Malachi, Romans, Revelation, and the other books are not only about the times and the people to whom they were first written. The biblical story is our story. All that God has done, in every period of redemptive history, he has done for us so that we would come to know him and be the recipients of his life-giving and heart- and life-changing grace.
8. Every page of the story contains wisdom and truth for everyday life.
Without the wisdom of Scripture, there is no end to the disaster that would befall humanity and your life. All Scripture was written and protected so that we would bear good fruit, for God’s glory and our good (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
As you read the biblical story this year, may you be more grateful for the Word than ever before, and may your dependency on and love for Jesus grow in new, deeper ways.
A Prayer for Today: Lord, thank you for your Word. Thank you for the grace of knowing that you care and want to communicate with me via the Bible, and thank you that I have access to it at any time. God, please help me to grow in my passion for your Word, and help me to appreciate the greatest tangible gift you have given me. Help me to read it with clarity and with purpose as I strive to know you and your heart more and more each day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
God bless,
Paul Tripp
Discussion Prompt for Children:
• Why do you think the Bible is the most important book in the history of all human beings? What makes it such a big deal? Why do you think people care so much about the Bible and what it has to say?
• What does the Bible have to do with you and me and how we live every day? Why is the biblical story just as much our story as it is the story of the people we read about in it?
Reflection Questions
1. How have you typically viewed Scripture and your relationship with it in the past? Has it felt more like a duty than a privilege? Has it seemed like a box to check off instead of a gift of grace from a God who wants to communicate with you?
2. Why is the Bible the greatest tangible gift you have ever been given? How do you think you could grow in appreciation and affection for the Word more this year? What kind of heart posture would you need to see that happen? What kind of practical steps could you take to see that happen?
3. Why is the Bible all about Jesus, even though he may not be mentioned by name in certain parts? Why is it important that the Bible is all about Christ?
4. Why is the biblical story really your story as well? How has the Bible given you a proper sense of your own life? How has it helped you to understand the heart and mind of God more clearly?
5. In what ways do you need to change and apply the Bible to your everyday life in ways you currently are not doing? Take a minute and ask the Lord to give you the grace to see and understand the Scriptures more clearly each time you read them, and that it might change you more and more every day.