For years I struggled to develop a consistent habit of reading my bible. I was raised to know the importance of having a daily quiet time with God. It was impressed early on upon me that you had to start your day with God. You had to set apart a time where you’d read your bible and pray.

It was part and parcel of my early years right up until I went to university and I didn’t have to give it much thought – it seemed effortless. And it really was. All I had to do was show up at the designated family time for worship, prayer and exhortation. I loved those times and for many years as an adult, the bulk of the scriptures I knew came from those I had learnt as a tween/teen/young adult from those family devotions.

But then I left home for university and suddenly there was no more structure to my quiet times. Thankfully, there were the likes of Our Daily Bread or The Word for Today, physical copies of which my mum and dad supplied me with regularly. I used them one and off but without anyone to hold me accountable, my quiet times with God became sporadic. Let’s be honest, I was an 18-year-old away from home for the first time – there was too much fun to be had! Plus pesky things like lectures, coursework assignments and more fun.

Fastforward to motherhood when my days and nights merged into one and became a hazy mix of exhaustion and quickly muttered prayer for the baby to sleep/stop crying/[insert anxiety-fuelled request of your choice here], a daily devotion was often the last thing on my mind.

I left that phase of life behind a while ago – no more sleepless nights, colicky babies or a baby scratching herself raw during the night thanks to the itchy discomfort of severe eczema. But for quite a number of years afterwards, I still struggled to be consistent with my daily devotions. I’d go through extremes of reading my bible daily (cue a big a sense of achievement) followed by several days where I wouldn’t do any for whatever reason (cue shame, guilt and worry that I had let God down). Until one day during a season of brokenness, I crawled back to God after realising that I couldn’t carry on without Him.

That even in my disobedience and my season of ignorance, He had been with me and had been holding me together. I was completely empty of myself, not through any intent of my own but just because of the blows I’d been dealt. I knew that to get up and carry on and for my life to have any kind of meaning or use for His glory, God would have to take control as I had obviously made a mess of it. For that to work, I knew that I’d have to show up daily for Him to help me. The alternative was unthinkable. I was desperate.

I know that there may be many others out there, desiring to spend quality time with God everyday but unable to get past themselves for one reason or the other. You want to be one of those people that actually enjoys reading the bible but you just don’t seem to have the taste buds for it. If any of this resonates with you, I have a few tips to help you:

Recognise that you are nothing without God

I had to get to a point where like the sons of Korah, I ached and thirsted for God.

Psalm 42:1 (AMP), “As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks, So my soul pants [longingly] for You, O God.  My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come and see the face of God?”

Whilst I don’t recommend getting to a point of utter brokenness as plan A, you do need to realise that if God is not your anchor, you will sink.

If you are struggling to keep to a consistent daily devotion habit, maybe deep down you don’t really see the need for it. Sure, you know that communion with God is important and that it’s through His power that we can scale many mountains. But probably you fail to really understand what that means practically for you? You don’t really see the gap caused by you not spending time with God. If this is you – pray and ask God to help your desire to want to know Him more. I think it’s amazing that God will help our weaknesses even when it comes to showing our love to Him. Be careful – this could potentially be a dangerous prayer. God may take away certain things so that your eyes turn to Him and you rely on Him. But I promise that you get so much more back.

Don’t set yourself up to fail

Pick a time of day that you know will work best for you. Not what your pastor does or that best friend of yours who seems to always be on fire for God.

This is about your personal relationship with your Father. You only have an audience of One.

I’m not an early bird by any stretch of the imagination but yet I’ve found that first thing in the morning is best for me; before the children wake up and my time is no longer my own. You know best what time of day you can commit to without fail – for you that could be during your lunch break at work or after the kids are in bed. Although you want to be consistent so that this becomes a habit, please give yourself grace if for whatever reason, you miss the time that you were going to have your quiet time. God is always available and He’s not marking the register or waiting to penalise you. Just do it the next slot you have.

You also don’t have to read chapters of the bible at a time or pray for hours. Whilst all these are great goals to work towards, when you are still trying to develop this habit, it’s best to start with bite-size amounts. God can speak to you out of just one verse; so feel free to start with that if that is what your time or attention span allows for now. Consistency is more important. Avoid comparing yourself with others who seem to be able to spend hours on bible study. The path of comparison leads to discouragement and before you know it, you’ve given up.

Get some help

If you find the thought of reading the whole bible daunting, get some help.

Don’t see it as reading the whole bible, more, “What does God want to say to me today?”

We live in an amazing time where there are so many great bible study resources – both in print and online. Many are free, some you have to buy. Others, come with fun printables that you can colour (I’ve been meaning to try these – they sound so fun!). I love using devotionals in my bible study and I often have more than one on the go – for the different challenges I may be facing or for biblical research.

For anyone who is still trying to develop a consistent bible reading/study habit, I would recommend using the YouVersion’s The Bible App (there’s even one for kids). They have a daily devotion that lasts only a few minutes – it’s a mixture of a scripture verse, a short video clip delving a little bit into the day’s scripture, a devotional text and a prayer. I like the video clip aspect as you never know who will be ‘teaching’ you that day (for example, there’s been Jennie Allen, Christine Caine, Tasha Cobbs, Levi Lusko, Tony Evans, just to name a few). You can be done in a matter of minutes – however, it often takes me a bit longer as I take time to pray and think about the verse and what God is saying to me through those words. And you can even set a reminder that pops up on your device at your designated time every day. In addition to the YouVersion devotional, the app itself has several others from a variety of churches, authors and speakers on pretty much everything you can think of.

God is faithful, even when we are not (2 Timothy 2:13) and so if you search for Him, you will find Him. And since we have the Holy Spirit, our search doesn’t have to be fruitless and exhausting, we can just ask God to help us. But you have to be determined that you’ll show up daily no matter what. Because God will always show up. And he always has a new word/revelation/instruction/comfort/etc. for you. Guaranteed.

If you already have a consistent daily devotion habit – what tips can you share? What have you found useful that may be of benefit to others?

Tired of your stop-start attitude to bible study? Click to read 3 quick tips on developing a consistent daily #devotion habit. Share on X

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