My ability to recall what I read is directly related to how much attention I bring to my reading. If I pick up a book just to pass time, I tend to read passively. It doesn’t really matter if I remember what I’m reading or not. If I am reading something that interests me, I pay more attention to the content. When I am reading something that really speaks to my heart, I concentrate fully on what I’m reading because I want to be changed by it.
In the same way, I can read scripture passively to check it off my “to do” list. Or I can read it more attentively because I want to understand. If I read something that I want to incorporate into my life, I really zero in on that portion of the passage and give it full attention. Unsurprisingly, reading the Bible passively is both the easiest and the least effective way. My next article will also be about reading scripture and will focus on reading plans, but here I want to offer some suggestions on how to minimize reading the Bible passively. This improves any reading plan.
One approach is to read with the expectation that God has something he wants to say to us through the portion we’re reading and to be actively engaged in looking for it. This method is not usually the most fruitful for me, but it is sometimes helpful. (And it might be the best method for someone else.) When I cover what to read, I’ll come back to this because there is one reading plan where I do find this to be particularly useful.
A second way would be to have a topic in mind and read to find out what God has to say about that topic. There was a time when we were homeschooling our children that we tried to read one chapter of Proverbs and some chapters in Psalms every morning. We had a particular focus in mind that was related to the current topic we were studying. We cycled through the same scriptures every month and saw different things in those same scriptures every month because we were looking for something different. Currently, I am reading through the whole Bible to see what it says about joy. I find I am by nature a complainer. It is not God honoring. I’m looking for scriptures to meditate on so I can gain a more God-like perspective on life’s irritations and inconveniences.
Asking questions of the passage is a third way of focusing our attention on what we are reading. Here are three ways to ask questions:
- Some people like taking the journalist approach; asking “Who?” “What?” “When?” “Where?” “Why?” “How?” This requires that we focus on the elements of what we have read. Personally, I only like this set of questions if I add the question, “So what?” The other questions are useful for gaining information; the last question asks me what my response should be to what I’ve read.
- A friend from church told me she had learned that Martin Luther asked these questions: “What does this mean for me?” “What praise should it bring forth?” “What should I confess?” “What petitions should I make?” I find these questions to be more thought provoking than the journalist questions.
- I also like the single question, “What does this passage show me about God?” He is unchanging, and while the specifics of how he works in anyone’s life may change, his goals have not changed. What Jesus did while he lived among us in human form he still seeks to do. By asking this question, we help ourselves notice what kinds of things God likes to do in the world—and maybe more clearly hear his invitation to join him in that work.
While it cannot be used for all our reading in the Bible, in his book, Hearing God in Conversation, Sam Williamson offered a suggestion that I had never thought of before: asking ourselves the questions that God asks others. For example, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” He asks us that question, too; and how we answer him is important. When Elijah was depressed and in the cave, God asked him, “What are you doing here?” This question invites us to look at our own motives. It may also present a chance for God to give us a job, as he did to Elijah, as a way of ministering to his depression. (By the way, I highly recommend Sam’s book. If you want to see an example of his style of writing—which I find to be very readable—visit his blog, beliefsoftheheart.com.)
Ultimately, the most effective thing we can do to focus our attention on what we are reading in the Bible is to remember how important it is. God uses his word is to show us what he is like, to renew our minds, and to change our perspectives. He uses his word to give us life. Remembering that scripture is vital to my spiritual well-being helps my mind focus on its truths.