Lesson 1 | Read Well
Study Skill: Five Strategies for Better Reading
Have you ever been reading along and suddenly realized you have read a sentence or two, a paragraph, even an entire page…and have no idea what you have just read? I am embarrassed to think how many times my mind has drifted off while reading—including reading the Bible. Reading for a better understanding begins with better reading—strategic reading.
Let’s consider five strategies that can help improve your Bible reading.
1. Read whole texts
The chapter and verse divisions in our Bibles are wonderfully helpful for finding a specific passage, but that is about all they are good for. On the downside, those divisions (along with a social media culture) have trained us to approach Scripture with a sort of sound-bite mentality, as though the Bible is an anthology of great sayings, bits of wisdom to be digested one snippet at a time. However, Paul did not tweet out Romans one verse at a time over several months. He sent a whole letter.
When you get a letter in the mail from a dear friend (does anybody still write or receive real letters?), do you read a couple of lines and then set it aside until the next day, then read a few more lines and set it aside again? That would be absurd. A letter is meant to be read as a whole—all of its parts contributing to the whole and none of them to be taken without respect to the whole.
This is the way we should approach Scripture, taking in entire units of writing: whole letters, whole psalms, whole prophecies, etc. That’s not to say we can never read less or that it is inappropriate to only read a single chapter, paragraph, or verse. But it is to say that along the way, in the regular rhythm of our Scripture reading, we need to read whole texts.
Reading a short letter like Philemon or 2 John is no problem, but reading Romans or 1 Corinthians in one sitting may seem daunting to some. Yet it is worth the time set aside for such a task. For much longer texts, it may help to take two or three sittings to read through entirely. The point is simple: read whole texts. Andy Naselli offers the following encouragement:
Have you ever read the Gospel according to Matthew straight through in one sitting? Or Romans? Or Job? Or Revelation? If not, you’re missing out. That’s the way they’re meant to be read. A book like Nehemiah would generally take about one hour. Ephesians would take 20 minutes. Here’s a full list of the approximate times it would take to read each book in our English Bible.
I understand the objection: “There’s no way I could possibly find time to do this.” But aren’t there other activities you do in life for prolonged periods of time? Do you read other books for a few hours at a time? Do you ever spend an hour watching a TV show or two hours watching a movie or three hours watching a football game? Why not prioritize lengthy, undistracted time in the life-giving word?
—Andy Naselli
2. Read again and again
I can say without hesitation that the most fruitful time spent in God’s word has been when I have stayed in one portion of Scripture, reading and re-reading the same text many times, over many days, through several weeks and even months. Often, it is not until the eighth or tenth or fifteenth time reading through a passage that I begin to see and grasp what is being said—not because Scripture is so hard to understand or that it’s true meaning is hidden, but for at least two reasons:
- Scripture is so rich. It makes beautiful and vital connections across its pages and history. It presses in deeply and addresses hard questions maturely. It is nourishment for the soul that is meant to be savored, not gulped.
- Our minds and our hearts are so dull. We are all surrounded by distractions—both necessary and frivolous. (How many times have you checked your phone notifications in the last hour?) And even if we can get away to a quiet place for a time, our minds can be flooded with thoughts, plans, anxieties, conversations, etc. Thus it takes deliberate strategies to bring our hearts and minds into the thought patterns of Scripture.
Certainly not everyone is wired the same, so I do not assume that what works for me must work for you. Nevertheless, I have yet to meet a believer who has not profited from a long stretch in a single portion of Scripture.
3. Read aloud
No doubt you have heard Scripture read aloud by another—a pastor, worship leader, friend. But have you ever, while alone, read Scripture out loud for your own ears? The word of God is meant to be heard as well as read, as Scripture itself exhorts,
When you move from silent reading to reading aloud, you have immediately multiplied your experience. Your pace is necessarily slower and you are now hearing spoken words. Sadly, even reading aloud, my mind has drifted to other places. It seems the human brain has an amazing capacity for distraction (at least mine does). Reading aloud does not solve the problem but it does go a long way toward focusing attention and facilitating better reading comprehension.
Reading aloud also helps us to consider the author’s tone. Join me in a brief experiment. Say the sentence, “I didn’t steal your money” out loud five times with the accent on a different word each time.
I didn’t steal your money. I didn’t steal your money. I didn’t steal your money. I didn’t steal your money. I didn’t steal your money.
You’ve just said five very different things!
There are several implications we could draw from this exercise. Here are two that I would like to highlight for our purposes.
- How careful we ought to be with God’s word, especially the public reading of Scripture. Just the simple inflection of our voices can carry a tremendous amount of meaning. It is therefore well worth giving some time to careful reading in preparation for the public reading of Scripture.
- A speaker’s tone of voice matters…and so does an author’s. It is not always easy to discern an author’s tone from a written text but it is not as hard as you might expect.
4. Read actively
That is, engage yourself fully in the process of comprehension. Markup the text, take notes, make observations, ask questions. This course is all about helping you build and refine these active reading skills. These skills are useful whether you prefer to use an app like Biblearc or to physically mark up a printed text. I whole-heartedly acknowledge the value of both. On the one hand, while technology can be efficient, it does have its own set of distractions. I, for one, can easily become so focused on the functions of an app that my heart becomes more intrigued by the technology than by the Scriptures I intend to study. Therefore, I will often print out the Scripture text so that I can step away from technology, slow down, take pen(s) in hand, and markup the text. Efficiency should not always claim the highest value. On the other hand, using an app provides an excellent means for storing and retrieving my work. So, I encourage you to wisely use both digital and physical tools.
5. Finally, read prayerfully
I say “finally,” but this is certainly not the last activity we should employ in our Bible reading! Neither is it just a box to check before we read. We should be giving ourselves to prayer throughout our reading and study.
How should we pray as we approach and dig into the word of God? John Piper has often mentioned a pattern of prayer that has been wonderfully helpful to him.
- Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain (Psalm 119:36)
- Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Psalm 119:18)
- Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11)
- Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days (Psalm 90:14)
The following six-minute clip is quite encouraging: