Reading the Bible may feel like a great work of literature that requires a professor or interpreter to help you understand. Praise God, we have the Holy Spirit to do just that!
"For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." Romans 15:4
What percentage of people do you think love to read? According to the website Test Prep Insight, a 2024 national survey showed that almost half of the respondents hadn’t read a book in over a year. Those between the ages of 45 and 54 contained the highest population of non-readers at 60.9%. When comparing males and females, more than half of the males were non-readers. Respondents in the 65+ category recorded the highest number of print book readers at 45.1%.
You might think that these statistics are not earth-shattering, but I would contend that if you polled a group of Christians, the percentages would probably be similar, which could have ramifications in a believer's life related to Bible reading. If you don’t like to read, reading the Bible might feel daunting. I personally have a few friends who are Believers who have expressed this very sentiment. Until I read the verse above from Romans, I had never thought about the fact that reading the Scriptures takes perseverance, for some more than others.
The Google dictionary defines perseverance as “persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”
Reading the Bible may feel like a great work of literature that requires a professor or interpreter to help you understand. Praise God, we have the Holy Spirit to do just that!
Whether you don’t like to read, have difficulty reading, or struggle with comprehension, you may be someone who needs to take the Apostle Paul’s admonition to persevere in reading the Bible.
There is another aspect of the definition of perseverance that can ring true for many and that is “delay in achieving success.” I’m sure there are many, myself included, who may read a promise from God and think, “Well that hasn’t happened for me!” Or you may have an area in your life that you struggle with and have looked to the Scriptures for help, but you keep right along stumbling and adopt a “Why keep reading?” attitude. Yet, these are the very reasons we must persevere in our reading of the Scriptures.
Let’s break down the Romans 15:4 verse above to spur us on to persevere in the reading of the Word.
Perseverance
I wouldn’t call myself an avid reader, but as I’ve gotten older, I definitely enjoy reading and reading comes easier to me now. When I was younger, I had great difficulty with comprehension. I’d literally have to read something over and over again to understand it.
Before becoming a believer and having the benefit of the Holy Spirit to lead me in my Scripture reading, the Bible made no sense to me. I didn’t understand anything I was reading nor did it speak to me. Fast forward a couple of years later and I was invited to participate in a Bible study, and it was there in the Scriptures that the Lord met me and I came to know Him as my personal Savior. Yes, my friend Cindy introduced me to what it meant to have a saving relationship with Jesus, but it was through my perseverance in reading the Bible and craving to know more and more that I understood what that truly meant at which point I gave my life to Christ. I think that is why I don’t remember a specific date or remember having this lightbulb moment, but instead, the Lord came in quietly through the reading of His Word. Persevering in the Word brought about the blessing of salvation.
As I continued growing in the Lord, I developed such a love for the Word of God, but as someone who tends to struggle with anxiety, I’m not sure that I persevered in believing all that I read in the Scriptures. If I did, I would have trusted God more with my circumstances. When we persevere in believing the Word, we will be blessed with the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Once I began to persevere in believing all that I read in the Word, I needed to apply it to my life. Now that's a perseverance that seemed difficult to me. I found myself saying with the Apostle Paul, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (Romans 7:18b-20). When we persevere in applying the Word, we will not be living with this tension Paul describes here but will be walking in step with the Lord, and there is no greater blessing than to be in the will of God.
When we persevere in reading the Word, believing everything we read and applying it to our lives, we will be blessed with abundant life.
Encouragement
Paul tells us that the Scriptures are there to encourage us. The Word of God is the means by which we maintain a relationship with God and where we learn all about Him. When we persevere in reading about our Lord and Savior, we will continually consume His love, grace, and mercy. It is so important to read the Bible because it is literally our Daily Bread, our lifeline. Every jot and tittle of the Word speaks to us about our Lord’s loving character There are some portions of the Bible that are notorious for being, dare I say, “boring,” such as Numbers or even Kings, but on a recent read-through of the Bible, when I persevered in those books and journaled through what I read, I saw over and over again God’s incredible patience and His perfect order and design for all things He created. When we persevere in reading the Word, the Lord will open our eyes to His amazing attributes. God’s Word is living and active, a continual source of encouragement.
When we persevere in reading through the Bible, we can also be encouraged by God’s past faithfulness to His people, but not only that, we see a God who never changes, a God whose faithfulness to the saints of old offers the same faithfulness to modern-day saints.
Over the years, I’ve read through the Bible, but it can take literal years for me to get through it. Last year was the first year that I read through the Bible in an actual year. It was daunting for me because I do have comprehension issues, but I pressed on and persevered. As a result, I received the blessing of seeing how God’s perfect plan for His people and His chosen ones threads through the Bible in a beautiful love story from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
When we persevere in reading the Bible, we can be encouraged by God’s attributes, His love, and His great faithfulness.
Hope
Probably the biggest blessing that we receive when we persevere in reading the Bible is hope. The Wiley Online Library shares the following Biblical definition of hope: “the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.” The only way we can apply this definition is through the perseverance of reading the Word. After all, how can we be confident in God if we don’t consistently read our Bibles to learn about Him? How can we know the many promises of God if we have not persevered and read through the Bible? How can we grasp His faithfulness, if we have not read for ourselves all that He has done, is doing, and will do?
Years ago, I started a new job as the secretary to the local school committee. I had big shoes to fill as the woman I was replacing was a beloved fixture at the school and did her job well. They were basically splitting her job in two. The other portion of the job was going to Kim who was filling the position of Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent. When I met Kim, we talked and got to know each other. We also both echoed the following desire: “I can’t wait until we know the job so well that it comes naturally to us.” Each of us then set out to study our new positions, taking notes and putting into practice what we had been taught. Before we knew it, we were both naturals at our jobs.
This is the type of perseverance we need when approaching our Bible reading. The King James Version of 2 Timothy 2:15 highlights this perfectly, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” We must study the Word of God to know who our God is and to know who we are in Christ Jesus. We need to put into practice all that we have learned.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
A lawyer always prepares his defense before going in front of a judge. As believers, we have many who judge our Christianity, making it all the more important to persevere in our study of the Scriptures so that we are always ready to make a defense to anyone who asks and to be able to give an account of the hope that we have.
Not only do we receive the blessing of hope when we persevere in the Scriptures, but we can bless others with the hope that is within us and bring glory to God.
May you persevere in the study of the Word and be blessed with encouragement and hope.
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