Four Great Benefits Of Reading Your Bible Every Morning
It’s important to start your day off on the right foot by reading the Word of God, and to see why it’s so important, here are four blessings of reading your Bible every morning.
Rejoice in Word
I start my day off by reading the Word of God…every day, whether I feel like it or not…and the times when I don’t feel like it, is the very time I need it the most! I’m reading a chronological Bible right now and I read some out of the Old Testament and then some out of the New Testament every
morning. Amazingly, the subject matter is sometimes related to one another, but for me, the biggest thing is it helps me live with the end in mind. I am living today, not for this world, but the next. I know I’m not the only believer who is living with the end in mind, and like me, they have eternity in their heart. That makes our perspective a bit different from those who don’t know Christ, so reading the Bible in the context of eternity helps me better comprehend what God is telling me in His Word. That’s why I need that daily bread or manna from heaven. Once a person is brought to repentance and they put their trust in Christ, suddenly the sovereignty of God makes a lot more sense of things. I don’t mean perfect sense, because we cannot figure God out, but this I know. When I get up, I know that
“This is the day that the LORD has made [so] let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
Meditation
Meditating on the Word of God is not mentioned much in biblical teaching, and I think that’s too bad because meditating on the Word of God is what the psalmist did. He prayed:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). Right now, especially during this time of the year, I can agree with Solomon in prayer that
“the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” (Song of Solomon 2:11-12). As I sit here drinking my coffee and reading this verse, it makes sense to meditate on the Word of God, and on the creation of God. In the quiet of the early morning, I can pray,
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). Even if all I had was Christ, I believe I would have all I need in Christ.
Mind of Christ
Jesus sought to always glorify the Father by the works that He did, and that is our calling too (Psalm 115:1). We are to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and forever starts right now for those who trust in Christ. A mind that is a brand new creation of God (2 Cor 5:17) will seek the good of others and not self, which is why Jesus came (Mark 10:45), so I strive to have that mind of Christ, though I fall miserably short. Even so, the Apostle Paul admonished us to
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:5-7). When we confess sin (Joshua 7:19), we glorify God. When we praise God, we glorify God (Psalm 50:23). When we attribute anything we do to God, we glorify God (1 Cor 4:7), and I believe the psalmist would agree, as he wrote,
“I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol” (Psalm 86:12-13).
Peace of Mind
One of my favorite verses, although written expressly to the nation of Israel, is Zephaniah 3:17 which says,
“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” No, it wasn’t written to us, but those things are written for us, and I think God would feel no differently about His own children. What parent wouldn’t repeat such a phrase? To “quiet you by his love” gives me a mental image of a mother tenderly comforting her child as they’re crying. Love has a way of stilling our hearts, and not just in infancy. Isaiah the Prophet wrote,
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (26:3).
This is not much different than the psalmist decree that
“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure” (Psalm 16:8-9), however, no one can have the peace of God until they are first at peace with God (Rom 5:1), but for Christ followers, there is peace of mind in knowing that
“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught” (Isaiah 50:4).
Conclusion
There are several other “anxiety killers” in the Word of God, like Philippians 4:6-7 where Paul commands,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
How must the Israelites have felt after reading such precious promises like those which Isaiah wrote, including in Isaiah 43:2 which says,
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you,” and since we know God does not change, we can rejoice in song and prayer, saying,
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23). Of course, I end my day by reading again out of the Old Testament and the New Testament, so in this way, I can pillow my head at night, knowing that this was the day that the Lord had made, so I will
“rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24c), and thank God that He
“gives to his beloved sleep”(Psalm127:2c).