5 Excuses We Make to Avoid Reading Our Bibles
The way to make reading not challenging is to just dive in and read a little, just to test the water.
You might not know much about the Bible, but you never will without reading. Perhaps you went to college. You didn’t know all there was before going. The same logic applies to working a job, being a spouse, or a parent. Sometimes, you learn as you go. Don’t let anxiety tell you otherwise.
If you utter this excuse, which I certainly have, then you have misaligned your priorities. One devotional I read imparted a reality check on me, “God doesn’t need you to finish my to-do list.” That list is something I, or you, create so that we can feel productive. Perhaps there are good things on our to-do lists. Yet, would we deny that connecting with God through His Word is also a good thing? Would we deny that connecting with God is ultimately better?
Unlike some other Christians, I’ll admit that some parts of the Bible still bore me today. Not as much as in the past, but I would still prefer not to read passages like the Book of Numbers. There’s something very monotonous about the text, and family lineages don’t usually interest me. However, what I also recognize is that beneficial ideas are not always pretty. There’s important information about Jesus to be found in Numbers and realities about how God can use people, anyone, even those society disregards, to do great things. If I skipped Numbers entirely, I would miss out on that.
Sometimes, what we need to hear comes as a harsh truth. Sometimes, what we need to hear comes as a boring truth. Ultimately, if we are to live the Christian life, we want to make sure that we connect with the Truth, no matter what.
The Bible calls us to seek first the kingdom of righteousness. Only then can we effectively build our faith and teach others about the Gospel. In fact, one of the major reasons we ought to spend more time in the Word is God’s call for us to share the Gospel (Matthew 28: 18-20). Like sports or technology, We can’t speak deeply or confidently on any subject we don’t comprehend ourselves. I used to see biblical events as historical events separate from my own life. The experience was like me studying the events in a foreign land out of curiosity but not believing that they had any bearing on me. Then, during one sermon, my pastor said that we should view Bible history as our own history. We are a community of believers. We should seek to honor the believers we know now but also those who came before us. They are our people. We are so quick to put ourselves in communities based on our hobbies, skin color, and such, but don’t treat the Church the same way. Ultimately, by reading Scripture, we learn more about Christ. We become more like Him, and in turn, we live out the sort of lives that God has called us to together.
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Get in touch with him at aarondanthony.com and check out his debut short story anthology Honey Dreams on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.