Do you believe in God? Do you believe the Bible is the word of God? You do? Great! Have you read the Bible?
- “Well…you see, I’m busy.”
- “I don’t really have time to read the Bible.”
- “The Bible is so long. I just don’t think I can get through it all.”
Yeah, I’ve heard these excuses. I used them myself earlier in life. They don’t hold up.
It’s true that the Bible is a long book. And it’s true that it’s much longer than your average non-fiction book. Indeed, the length of bestselling nonfiction books is actually decreasing on average. The reason is a combination of new print technology as well as falling attention spans. So, yes…
The Bible is long. And it will stretch and strain the average person’s attention span.
Are you going to let that stop you?
The reality is that the Bible doesn’t have to be read in one sitting! As the old saying goes…
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
You can read the Bible a little bit each day — and, before you know it, you’ve read the whole thing!
Let’s look at a little math…
Experienced adult readers can read up to 350 words per minute, but let’s say you are in the second or third-grade range of 100 words per minute. (See this chart for average reading speeds). Okay, so you’re an inexperienced and slow reader — 100 words per minute.
That’s okay. Everyone has to start somewhere — or get started again somewhere. The important thing is that you get going or get back on track. So… 100 words per minute, it is.
Can you give God one hour per day?
You don’t have to do the full hour in one sitting. You can spread it out — 15 minutes when you wake up, 15 minutes during your lunch break, 15 minutes in the late afternoon or early evening, and another 15 minutes before you go to bed.
Let’s say you give God an hour of your time each day to read His word — reading at 100 words per minute. Here’s where the math kicks in.
- 100 words per minute = 6000 words per hour
- One hour of reading per day = 6000 words per day
- Reading one hour per day for 300 days = 1,800,000 words per year
Look, I’ve given you 65 days to miss. You can miss reading for 65 days. Or… you can “fudge” those days because we both know that, some days, you won’t do the full hour, right? So you have a “buffer” of 65 days to make up time. So, in a 365-day year, you will read the equivalent of one hour a day for 300 days.
Make sense?
That means you’ve read 1,800,000 words.
So….how long is the Bible? Well, that depends on the translation. According to TheBibleAnswer.org, here are the lengths of four popular English translations:
- King James Version – 783,137 words
- New King James Version – 770,430 words
- English Standard Version – 757,439 words
- New International Version – 727,969 words
Let’s say you go for the gusto and read the King James Bible. That’s 783,137 words. Well, guess what?
If you read one hour a day for 300 days (over a 365-day period as described above), then you will have read 1,800,000 words. Do you know what that means?
You could read the King James Bible TWICE in a year — and still have some words to spare!
Now, let’s say you can’t give God an hour a day for 300 out of 365 days in a year. Let’s say you can only give God 30 minutes to read His word. That means, at just 100 words per minute at thirty minutes a day, you would read 900,000 words in 300 days. Again, giving you the extra 65 days as a buffer…
You could easily read the entire King James Bible once through in a year at just 30 minutes per day!
I understand there are some people who have difficulty reading. I do. But, there are resources available. You can get a large print Bible or listen to it via audio.
We’re asked to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Mind and strength!
You can do this!
“Okay, I get it. But I don’t know where to start.”
Well, I’ll tackle that in my next post. 🙂
In the meantime… start anywhere. Either Genesis 1:1 or Matthew 1:1 are both great places to start. 🙂
God bless you and Happy Reading!
