I’m sure you’ve heard how we are always supposed to have our Bible Studies in the morning. “It’s the best time of the day to get alone with God!” they said. “You don’t want to start the day on the wrong foot, do you?” they said. Not so fast.
Images of perfectly groomed women (at dark o’clock every morning? Seriously?), cradling cups of steaming hot coffee (didn’t they burn their hands? Was safety discussed in the photographer’s release?), avidly reading their Bibles and writing neat lines of legible writing (instead of yelling at their children and scribbling on a piece of paper)… that’s totally not me.
Now, I’ll admit, I am a morning person. If I stay up late the night before, I’ll still wake up early tomorrow. I’ll just be a tired morning person.
Though I am a morning girl, however, I have struggled off and on with that whole morning-only Bible study business. I almost lost my enthusiasm for reading my Bible. Oh, good, I’m not alone.
After nearly a lifetime of reading and studying the Bible, I discovered some things about myself that have helped me regain my fire for my devotional life. I noticed that more factors seemed to influence my private Bible study than I had realized. When I managed those factors in a positive way, I seemed to regain my motivation to set aside time to pray, read, and study.
New Discoveries Led to New Motivation
One thing I noticed was that my body had a rhythm for energy and inertia that didn’t depend on how much sleep I’d gotten the night before. When I read during my peak times, my attention and motivated soared. Also, when I wrote my insights in the margins of my Bible instead of in separate notebooks, I would be reminded of these truths later each time I opened my Bible.
Then I realized: I did enjoy studying my Bible. I had simply lost sight of the reason I was even reading it, and that was part of my problem.
My motivation for reading in my early days was to know the Bible well. Now that I have learned the Bible well, I needed to read to know Him well. Instead of reading for head knowledge, I needed to scour for intimate knowledge of my Lord and Savior. My motivation for reading in my early days was to know the Bible well. Now that I have learned the Bible well, I needed to read to know Him well. Click To Tweet
I recognized that I was putting too much pressure on myself to perform for a God I no longer knew. The God I once knew loved me no matter what I did or did not do. How much and when I read did not affect His love for me in the slightest, though they did affect my attentiveness and motivation.
Let the Guilt-Free Bible Study Begin
Pulling together all my insights helped me restart my Bible Study, guilt-free. I started—and you may start—with these three assumptions:
- God loves you and me no matter what we do. He is also more motivated than we are to lead us into a more intimate understanding of Who He is and how He works in real time in our lives (Jeremiah 31:3).
- God’s Word is not just true; God’s Word is Truth itself. He not only documented what He
did in the human race through His Word, but embedded His prophecies, proclamations, precepts, and promises in it. We might not understand everything in it, but everything in it is there for a reason, and it’s our joyful duty to comb it for everything He has in it for us (Romans 15:4). - Grace is for sinning and stumbling. Grace is not an excuse for being lazy, sloppy, or not giving our best when we can.
Ask yourself these three questions:
- Do you have realistic expectations? It would help more to read a smaller section of scripture and spend time poring over it and meditating on it than to read a whole chapter just to say you did it. I recall my early unrealistic expectations of doing a study through the entire book of Psalms. I never completed it.
- What physical background do you try to do your Bible Study in? For example, if you’re an extrovert and try to study in a quiet room, you might drive yourself nutty. If you’re an introvert and have Christian music blasting on your device, you might get the same result. It helps to know yourself and understand the best background to surround yourself with when you want to meet with God.
- When you consistently have enough sleep and food, what are your daily body rhythms, or cycles, of functioning like? What time of the day do you have the most energy?
These recurring daily cycles of functioning are known as circadian rhythms. Knowing this about yourself will help you schedule your Bible Study at the most practical, alert time of your day. Studying your Bible at some other time besides morning, however, will not make you unspiritual.
Remember, the ancient Hebrews started their day in the evening (Genesis 1:5). You could have your Bible Study in the evening and be well within the guidelines of spiritual allowances under grace instead of legalism (Romans 14).
Give yourself these three considerations:
- Self-care must become a priority for you. That means getting enough sleep, healthy food (to balance out the unhealthy food… right?), good water, exercise of some sort (walking around the mall after dinner counts!), and a level of socialization appropriate to your personality type.
Good self-care will help minimize the stress you experience throughout your day. Self-care helps your heart to be ready to receive from God’s Word.
- If your living space is messy, address at least part of it before you start your Bible Study. Research has shown that messy living spaces distracts the mind from being able to concentrate.
- If you’re easily distracted by thoughts of the coming day, keep a pad of paper nearby to jot down notes so you can refocus.
I hope that starting with positive assumptions, asking yourself good self-knowledge questions, and giving yourself three practical gifts will help you on your way to a guilt-free Bible Study. They sure helped me!
