When you brush your teeth, does your experience reflect the enthusiasm and transformative results you see on the gleaming, smiling faces in all the toothpaste commercials? You know brushing your teeth every day is good for you, so you do it. But it doesn’t exactly bring you joy. That’s how I used to feel about reading the Bible, but I sure wanted it to be different.
Despite my diligence and earnest desire to “be a good Christian” and understand God’s Word, the Bible intimidated me. Never mind studying it—simply reading it overwhelmed me sometimes. What should I read, and why? How can I be certain my interpretation is correct? What if I get it wrong? I believed I wasn’t smart enough to fully understand it, and I felt ill-equipped to study it well since I hadn’t attended seminary or learned Greek and Hebrew.
Even though I sincerely desired to know “the whole counsel of God,” I’d read the lists of laws in Leviticus and wonder, “What does leprosy care have to do with Christianity?” The visions in Ezekiel read more like strange sci-fi than life-changing spiritual truth. And I often became confused by seemingly contradictory passages, such as Proverbs 26:4–5 (CSB): “Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.”
Most days, I felt like I was merely guessing the meaning of a Scripture passage and missing something significant. I assumed only trained ministry leaders could understand the difficult passages. It was “over my head”, so I left it up to “the experts” to tell me what it meant.
That all changed. And it can change for you, too.
Today, I genuinely delight in reading and studying the Bible. I’m not intimidated by difficult passages. When I have a question I want answered biblically, I’m confident I can find the answers I seek. And my understanding of God and His Word grows every single day. Unlike the claims of the grinning actors on those toothpaste ads, my enthusiasm and joy are genuine because learning how to study the Bible has actually transformed my life. I share what I’ve learned so you can delight in God’s Word with me and study it with confidence.
Why Does Studying the Bible Feel Like a Chore?
In my years of teaching women the Bible, I’ve discovered that many Christians avoid studying God’s Word for the same reasons I did:
- intimidation
- the belief that it’s beyond my ability or intellect, or that I need formal training
- not knowing how or where to begin
The struggle is real.
The Bible offers insight into why we might struggle to understand it.
1. We’re sinners.
God’s Word is the light that exposes darkness, and our sinful nature resists the discomfort of exposure (John 3:20). Also, in our sinfulness, we make mistakes and sometimes misinterpret Scripture because of false preconceptions. And some people are willfully ignorant of the truth in the Bible and have hardened their hearts to God (2 Peter 3:5; Ephesians 4:18).
2. Understanding the Bible requires effort.
God intended the Bible to be a book we study (2 Timothy 2:15). But studying is work, and our sinful flesh resists work. Studying requires focus—an increasingly challenging achievement in this age of distraction; our minds are full of other things (Matthew 13:22). To study effectively, we need to take time to meditate on God’s Word (Psalm 1:2) rather than rushing through it just to check off our to-do lists. So, to understand the Bible, we must prioritize it—and this effort and intentionality do not come naturally to most of us.
3. Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned.
The enemy of our souls uses our “full plates” as a reason to keep us from the very table that would nourish us. Understanding the Bible is a spiritual battle.
It’s also more than an intellectual endeavor. God designed it that way on purpose, for His purpose, for His glory. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:10–14 that God reveals His Word to us by His Spirit, and that He gave us His Spirit so that we might understand the truth of His Word, which is spiritually discerned. This means that, without the Spirit of God, we can’t fully comprehend His Word. If we rely solely on our intellect (Proverbs 3:5), or if we’re not in Christ, we won’t be able to truly understand the intended meaning of the Bible.
Bible Study: From the Head to the Heart
Psalm 119:130 says that God’s Word “imparts understanding to the simple.” Similarly, Psalm 19:7 says it makes the simple wise. “The simple” are those who lack intellectual ability. How encouraging! God Himself, through His Word, tells us that even those whom the world might consider unintelligent, uneducated, or “common” can understand the Bible. (That’s me! And I can testify from my own experience that these verses are true.)
God gave us His Word, and its message is clear. He is not silent, but He ordained that we cannot fully understand His Word without Him. He reveals to us what we need to know by His Spirit. So, if you are in Christ, then His Spirit is in you (Romans 8:9), and your heart and mind can receive and understand God’s Word.
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
God didn’t give us the Bible to burden us with an impossible task—discerning the indiscernible. It’s not a book we must master to earn God’s favor or spiritual “gold medals”. God gave us His Word so we can know Him.
God is personal and relational. He has been seeking fellowship with us since He created the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8–9). The heart of Bible study is communion—an active, thriving, life-changing relationship with God.
Keys to Confidence and Delight in Bible Study
An often overlooked factor in our struggle to delight in God’s Word is our motivation or goal. As long as we aim merely to check a task off our lists, earn favor with either God or other people, or build up a mental storehouse of knowledge about the Bible, we’ll continue to battle disappointment and frustration despite our best efforts.
But when we shift our perspective and open our Bibles with the intention of knowing God more, our experience becomes delightful rather than drudgery. When we realize the Bible isn’t a manual for our improvement but a story of God’s redemption, the pressure to “perform” Bible study evaporates, and we discover Jesus on every page. We approach God’s Word like pulling up a chair to the banquet table, surveying the feast before us, and eagerly anticipating a time of rich communion.
So, how do we practically move from duty to delight, from routine reading to this relational communion? How do we grow in our understanding of God and His Word in practical ways? What does this look like in real life?
Addressing those questions is a big part of why I created this website. Here, you’ll find plenty of practical tips to implement in your personal Bible study. (If you can’t wait, explore my Bible study tips & tools to help you dig deeper.) For now, I want to emphasize three keys to understanding your Bible and studying with confidence:
1. Practice
Have you ever encountered a verse you’ve read countless times and suddenly understood it in a way you never did before? This is not an indication of failure in your previous efforts. It’s simply the reality of spiritual maturity and biblical comprehension—it happens over time, with increased knowledge and experience. In other words, it takes practice. Every minute you spend studying the Bible is a valuable part of the process; it’s never a waste.
2. Patience
Throughout the Bible, meditation is encouraged to understand, obey, and delight in God’s Word (e.g., Joshua 1:8–9; Psalm 1:1–2). Meditation involves repetition—reviewing the words over and over again. This takes time. It’s a slow process, so don’t rush it. Biblical understanding is not a race or a destination you’ll finally complete. As long as you seek to understand it, your understanding will increase.
3. Prayer
We know we can’t understand the Bible on our own and that the Spirit reveals the meaning of God’s Word to us. So it makes sense to humble ourselves and ask Him for help.
Jesus said that when we ask for anything according to His will, He will grant it (John 14:12–14). We know God desires us to understand His Word, so we can ask Him expectantly. I like to pray with the psalmist:
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18).
You Can Understand the Bible and Delight in God’s Word
The God of the Bible wants you to know Him through His Word. He wants you to study it and to delight in the process. By His Spirit, you can understand the Bible, delight in God’s Word, and study it with confidence!
It may not be easy and certainly doesn’t happen quickly, but the effort is infinitely worthwhile.
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me” (Proverbs 8:17).
Do you want a really simple way to get started? I created this free resource just for you. It’s a simple guide through some Bible passages that show us the benefits of studying God’s Word. Use it as a weekend devotional or as your Bible reading focus for the month. It’s flexible enough to fit your schedule.
