What Does My Daily Bible Reading Look Like?

bible study Feb 18, 2020

People regularly ask me what my time in the Word looks like. What Bible do I use? What pens? How long do I spend? What do I read? Today, let's answer a few of those questions.

The first essential when I am reading my Bible is coffee. I make my coffee each morning, and while it is brewing I pull out my Bible, Deep Dive Scripture Journal, and pens. Then I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit down to study.

So my reading plan is chronological. I follow the chronological plan by Blue Letter Bible, and I read it in my normal Bible. A chronological plan follows the Bible in the order the events happened, so sometimes it has you jumping around all over the Bible. Reading the Bible in the order that the events happened helps you to see the bigger story in Scripture, and trace God's faithfulness through the history of the Israelites, and see how the principles apply to our lives today.

Okay, so now I have everything I need for my Bible reading time. I will sit down and first I will pray a quick prayer. One of my favorites is in Psalm 119. In verse 27 the Bible says "help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds." Praying before you begin your reading is so important. I don't want to read in my own power, but I want the Holy Spirit to guide me as I read and for God to reveal to me what He sees fit.

Next, I simply read the chapters for the day. I make notes as I read in the margins about what is happening or what I notice. This is also where I would underline with my color code. You can learn more about my color code through the Word in Color course. Usually, my notes in the margin are a summary of what was read, or my thoughts about it. Sometimes I will write a prayer out, or even just an exclamation point if something makes me excited.

This morning's reading had me in Genesis 19-21. In chapter 21 it tells about God keeping His promise to Sarah and her conceiving Isaac. I started off by underlining verse 1 in purple and writing in the margin that God is a promise keeper and His timing is perfect.

I don't take notes on everything in my Bible. I really only write what stands out to me. In my reading time my goal isn't to comment on everything, instead to simply understand what is happening, and what that teaches me about God.

After I have finished my reading, I pull out my Deep Dive Scripture Journal. This is where I will go through the questions it asks and review what I read. It asks about observations and then moves into a reflection time. The reflection time is my favorite because that is where I note what I learned about who God is in the reading. This helps me stay focused on getting to know God as I read the Bible.

At the end of the journal, there is a place for prayer. Here I simply thank God for what he taught me about Himself. I am continually learning more and more about who He is, and my prayer is that I continue to love Him more and more as well.

So there you have it - my Bible reading process. All in all, it takes me about 20-30 minutes each morning. If you are interested in grabbing a Deep Dive Scripture Journal to help you with your own Bible reading time, you can do that on Amazon here.