How Often Do You Read the Bible?

I once was asked if I believed in the Bible.  My answer was emphatically, “yes!”  After my response, the person asked, “Have you read everything in the Bible?”

At that point, I couldn’t say that I had.

I was basing my entire life off of something I had not completely read yet.

That needed to change.  I began to read the Bible daily and for a significant portion of my day.  While I’m not perfect in the discipline and have struggled with seasons of inconsistency, Bible intake has become a steady and consistent part of my life.

So, how often does the average person read the Bible?

As of 2017, the statistics I gathered gave these numbers:

  • Daily – 13%
  • Weekly – 22%
  • Monthly – 7%
  • Yearly – 30%
  • Never – 28%

Where would you fall in those statistics?

Distractions from the Bible

People often say that they don’t have enough time to read the Bible.  I do believe that we are busier than ever before, but I don’t believe that everyone is too busy to read the Bible even for just a little portion of the day.

Here are some of the distractions causing us to miss Bible reading.

Did you catch that?  People spend a daily average of these many minutes on these different distractions:

  • Facebook – 35 minutes a day
  • YouTube – 40 minutes a day
  • Netflix – 100 minutes a day
  • Mobile Phones – 300 minutes a day
  • TV – 304 minutes a day

We do have time to read the Bible.  We just are filling that time up with lesser pursuits.

I want to encourage you to find time to read the Bible today.  There are reasons your Bible reading is inconsistent, but you can fight against the trend.

  • If you haven’t read regularly, don’t expect to have a 30-60 minutes devotional time the first attempt.  Start somewhere and work to where you want to be.
  • Don’t vow to read the entire Bible when you have never finished a single book of the Bible.  Start reasonably and get there over time.

Get into reading the Word today.

While I have many days where I make excuses about slowing down to study the Bible, I have never once regretted that time spent.

[For more on this topic, check out the sermon, “For the Bible Tells Me So.”]