How to Study the Bible in 5 Minutes a Day

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So you want to have more quiet time with God, and actually read your Bible, but your days are already full and you don’t know where to start.

Reading your Bible, and learning to listen for God’s voice in your life, will yield so much fruit over time.

Some benefits of regular Bible study:

• Grow closer in your relationship with God.
• Learn to hear God’s voice.
• Hide stories in your heart that will help you navigate your own life.
• Learn from the lives of others.
• Find nourishment for your soul.
• Discover God’s promises for your life.
• Become more confident in your faith.
• Discern between what God wants and what the world wants.
• Discover peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

If you’re not already in the habit of daily Bible study and quiet time, then making a habit of spending time in Scripture may be a challenge.

Our lives are already often very full: full of work, chores, raising kids, shuttling kids to extra-curriculars, family responsibilities, household chores, and – if we can manage it – a few minutes for self-care or hobbies.

Squeezing another thing into an already-full life can be a challenge.

But if you are not yet in the habit of daily Bible study, starting with 5 minutes a day can make a huge difference.

Reading your Bible for just 5 minutes a day will give you over half an hour a week of Bible study, and just over 30 hours a year!  That’s not nothing.

Want to know exactly how much of the Bible you can get through in 5 minutes a day?  Check out this infographic by Crossway.  With just 5 minutes a day, you can read through the whole New Testament in just 6 months!  Add some time for reflecting and responding, and you can still accomplish that within a year.

How to Study the Bible in 5 Minutes a Day

This Bible study method is a modified lectio divina (Latin for “divine reading”) that will help you to discern God’s voice in your life and help you to navigate by Scripture and God’s promptings.

Each day, choose a passage from the Bible and follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Read.  Read a portion of Scripture slowly.  Which words or phrases jump out at you?
2. Reflect.  Reflect on those words or phrases.  How do you relate to what is being said?  How does the passage make you feel?
3. Respond.  How might God be asking you to respond to what he is highlighting in this passage?  What is his invitation to you?

This Read, Reflect, Respond method will get you started in regular Bible study, and it will help you to begin to notice God’s voice in Scripture.

As you read a portion of Scripture, notice which words or phrases stand out to you.

Sometimes this will be gentle encouragement from God.  Sometimes it will be something that God is convicting you of.  (God constantly is reminding me to “be still”, for example.)  Sometimes it will be a nudging in a new direction, or an invitation to explore something further.

Next, reflect of what those words or phrases mean to you.  You can also reflect on the whole passage at this point.  How do you relate to these words?  How does this passage speak into your life right now?  How does it make you feel?

Finally, consider what God’s invitation to you might be in this passage.  Is he asking you to pick something up, or to put something down?  Is he nudging you in a new direction?  Is he offering you comfort, or a challenge?  Is he teaching you something about who he is?

This Read, Reflect, Respond method can be done is as little as 5 minutes a day.  Even with only 5 minutes, it offers you a chance to pause and reflect on God’s Word, and to begin discerning what God is speaking into your life today.

What to read when you don’t know where to start…

If you’re not already in the habit of daily Bible study, then you may be struggling with where to start.

The Bible is huge.  What do I read first?

A few good ideas for where to start your daily Bible study:

Note: pick just one small section each day.  The Gospels are nicely divided into short stories or episodes that are a a handful to a couple dozen verses each.  Most Psalms will take you about 5 minutes or less to read.  Or find a commentary or devotional that is divided into short sections.

• The Gospel of Mark.  Mark’s Gospel is the shortest.  It is also the earliest account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Starting with Mark will give you the most condensed account of Jesus’s life and teachings.
• The Gospel of John.  John’s Gospel was written last, and it was “written that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).  While Mark’s Gospel shows us the disciples wrestling with who Jesus is and what to make of his life, death, and resurrection, John’s Gospel gives us a later account, when the disciples have had more time to wrestle with the theology of who Jesus is.  John’s Gospel was also written specifically for unbelievers, or seekers, so that they might believe.
• The Psalms.  The Psalms are a beautiful collection of poetry that captures every range of human emotion.  In the Psalms, we see David wrestling with fear, anger, and defeat, as well as celebrating victories and rejoicing in the glory of God.
• What your church tells you to read.  There is some benefit to spending time in the passages of Scripture that your church is reading on any given week: It gives coherence to the whole church and what they are working through.  It lets you dig deeper into the material that you hear preached on Sunday.  And it means that your own study of Scripture is not determined by your whims and interests; you are forced to face Scripture as it is given to you, not as you choose it.  Some denominations follow a lectionary that you can also follow at home.  Or you can simply spend extra time sitting with the passages that your pastor preaches each week.
• A devotional or commentary.  If you don’t feel confident in navigating the Bible on your own – I know I sure didn’t, when I started reading my Bible on my own – then picking up a devotional or commentary is a great way to work your way trough the Biblical text in some kind of order.  You can pick up The Bible in One Year commentary by Nicky Gumbel (though this will take you more than 5 minutes a day) which is my absolute favourite commentary.  Our Daily Bread Ministries also produces a short, daily devotional which definitely can be done in 5 minutes a day.

What I especially love about picking up a commentary or devotional is that your daily Bible reading is lead by God, rather than lead by you.

When I pick up my own Bible and try to just pick a spot to start reading, I inevitably rely on what I already know about the Bible, my favourite passages, and my own ideas about where I should start.

When I pick up a devotional or commentary, I am not the one choosing the passage.  And honestly, this is how I hear the voice of God most often: through reading the Bible, devotions, and commentaries prayerfully.  If I am struggling with something, I will bring it to God in prayer.  More often than not, in the following day or days, I find a direct answer to my question or problem in the Scripture reading or commentary for the day.

Note: if you are using a commentary or a devotional, you can read, reflect, and respond to the Biblical text and/or the commentary on the text.

The goal of daily Bible study is not simply to read the Bible for the sake of reading the Bible, but to engage with Scripture as it applies to your life.  Sometimes commentaries, notes, and stories from other people will inspire something in you and draw out truths from Scripture that you would not have gleaned had you read it on your own.

5 Minute Bible Study Guide

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