Tasting God’s Word, Not Just Checking Boxes
Yup, I've been guilty of it. I sit down with my Bible and reading plan, determined to knock out my chapters for the day. I glance at the clock, calculate how much time I have, and speed-read through the passages like I'm cramming for a test. Check, check, check. Done. Box ticked. Gold star earned. But when I close my Bible, I can't remember a single thing I just read.
Sound familiar?
There's a surge of Bible reading happening right now. Millions of people are starting 2026 with the intention of reading Scripture more faithfully. Bible sales rose 11% in 2025, with more than 18 million Bibles sold. Weekly Bible reading is at its highest level in 15 years. This is wonderful news! But I'm concerned that maybe we've turned Bible reading into another item on our to-do list instead of what it truly is: an invitation to encounter the Living God.
The Pharisees knew Scripture intimately. They could recite it. They studied it meticulously. They memorized it. And yet, when God Himself stood in front of them in the flesh, they didn't recognize Him. Why? Because they were reading the Bible as information to be mastered rather than as an encounter to be experienced.
I think about David's words in Psalm 34:8, "O taste and see that the LORD is good." Notice he didn't say, "O read and analyze." He said taste. Experience. Savor. There's a sensory intimacy in that language that we've lost when we turn Bible reading into a checkbox exercise.
When we approach Scripture this way, we miss the whole point. We can read through the entire Bible and never actually meet God in its pages. We finish our reading plan and pat ourselves on the back for our accomplishment, but our hearts remain unchanged. Our lives stay the same. We've consumed the words without digesting them.
What if we approached Scripture differently? What if instead of asking, "How many chapters can I get through today?" we asked, "What is God trying to say to me through this passage?" Instead of racing through the words to check them off our list, what if we lingered? What if we let a single verse sit with us for days, wrestling with it, praying through it, allowing it to change us?
That's the difference between reading the Bible as obligation and reading it as encounter.
Jeremiah understood this. He said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jeremiah 15:16). He didn't just read God's words. He ate them. He consumed them. He allowed them to nourish his soul.
When you sit down with Scripture, you're not just reading ancient words on a page. You're positioning yourself to meet with God Himself. The same Spirit who inspired those words is present with you, ready to illuminate them, challenge you, comfort you, and transform you. But that kind of encounter requires something different than rushing through chapters.
It requires surrender. It requires vulnerability. It requires you to approach Scripture not as a scholar trying to master it, but as a seeker willing to be mastered by it.
So yes, read the Bible. Please do. But don't let the plan become a prison. If a passage captures your heart and you need to sit with it for a week instead of moving on to the next chapter, sit with it. If you miss a day, extend grace to yourself and pick it back up without guilt. If a verse suddenly comes alive and speaks directly to your situation, pause and let that moment be sacred.
The goal isn't to read the Bible. The goal is to meet God through the Bible. And that kind of encounter can't be rushed.