Don't Read the Bible

Don't read the Bible.

Seriously. Don’t read it because doing so can be dangerous to your mental health. Use whatever excuse will satisfy you: It’s too difficult to understand. It’s archaic. It’s boring. It’s too long. I don’t have the time. It makes me feel bad.

Let’s focus on that last excuse – ‘It makes me feel bad.’

OF COURSE, it makes you feel bad. God designed the Bible to be a mirror of the soul. It shows us all the places in our lives that need confession, repentance, and change. And THAT, as I said, can be dangerous to your mental health. We all like to think of ourselves as ‘okay.’ We all like to think that God is totally happy with how I think and how I live.

We all like to have a happy mental health – and some of us seek ‘happy’ even if the ‘happy’ is false.

On the other hand, if you really want to know what God wants you to know so you can truly be ‘happy’, if you honestly want the His Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth, then I urge you – I IMPLORE you – get yourself a modern English translation of the Bible and read it. If you have physical limitations that limit your ability to read, then find a program on the internet or your phone that will read the Bible to you.

If you’re new to reading it every day, I suggest you start with the New Testament. You probably don’t want to read it as you would a regular book, starting on page one and continuing until the last page. God didn’t design the Bible to be read like that. Choose one of the 27 books of the New Testament. Finish that book, and then read another book elsewhere in the New Testament.

Yes, start with the New, but do not neglect the Old Testament. Use the same strategy there, too. Read one book, and then choose another from elsewhere in the Old Testament.

And if you are the kind of person who needs a more structured direction, there are plenty of annual Bible reading plans on the Internet. Find one and work it.

Did you know that if you read two chapters of the Old Testament every morning and two of the New Testament every evening (or vice versa), by the end of the year you will have read the Old Testament once, and the New Testament three times (2+2=1+3). On average it takes less than 10 minutes to read two chapters of Scripture. 

In five years, you will have read the Old Testament five times and the New Testament fifteen times. In ten years – well, you can do the math. With so much of God’s word sown year after year in your heart, think how the Holy Spirit will mature you more quickly into the image of Christ – and how quickly you can find the true ‘happy.’ 

But as I said at the beginning, reading the Bible, or avoiding the Bible, depends on what you want in your life – to feel ‘good’ about yourself, even if you are NOT good; Or to honestly inventory your life and admit you can never be truly happy unless God changes you from the inside out.

There is no other way to be the man or woman God created you to be, and there is no other way to find the happiness you seek, unless you find out what He wants you to be. And it’s all in the Book.