In an effort to have a healthier body, every day I take a multi-vitamin and a couple of other supplements to provide my body with important building blocks for health. If the truth be known, I probably wouldn’t need them if I ate healthier foods in healthier forms and healthier portions. The supplements replace what I should get naturally through my diet, and no matter how faithful I am to take them, the supplements do not provide all the full benefits I would get from a healthier diet.

Unfortunately, for many of us, we apply the same lack of discipline to our spiritual side of life as well. God has given us His Word to feed us spiritually, but we tend to settle for supplemental materials that are inferior to the great Spiritual Diet God has provided. We may feed our soul on Sunday school, sermons, TV preaching, video series, and even Christian music. These are all fine tools to have, but they cannot replace the value we receive in studying the Bible for ourselves on a regular basis.

Over the next few Wednesdays, I want to share with you some things that have helped me in my personal Bible study.

As you begin, the first thing you need is a PLAN. I suggest two types of Bible reading – first, read larger portions of Scripture. You may want to try a One Year plan that takes you through the whole Bible in a year. Several types of those plans can be found by clicking here.

One way lately I have been reading larger portions of Scripture is to choose a book of the Bible – or if it’s a large book, parts of the book – to read every day for an entire month. After finishing this current series on Colossians, I will be preaching a series on the Armor of the Lord from Ephesians 6, so I will read the entire book of Ephesians every day in May. Yes, I will read Ephesians 31 times this month.

In addition to larger parts of Scripture, I also read a smaller portion for that day’s meditation. I usually work my way through some sort of devotional guide that gives me a passage for that day. I highly recommend, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgoen, and Connect the Testaments by John Barry and Rebekah Van Noord (this is the one I currently use.

I will share a little more next week about how I probe a Scripture passage to mine the truths God has for me to hear that particular day. In the meantime, choose a plan, pick up your Bible, and start to read. It is food for your soul.

Questions to consider:

What plan will I follow for reading larger portions of Scripture on a daily basis?

How will I choose smaller portions of Scripture to probe each day?

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,
that by it you may grow up into salvation… 1 Peter 2:2