In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, finding time and focus for Bible reading can be a significant challenge. The distractions are many, and the demands on our time seem endless. However, engaging with the Bible remains a vital practice for any follower of Jesus.
Here’s how you can carve out space in your busy life for this important discipline.
Set a Specific Time and Place
Consistency is key. Choose a time and place where you are least likely to be disturbed. It could be early in the morning before the day’s activities begin, or perhaps in the evening when the house is quiet. The important thing is to have a set time and place that signals to your mind and body, “This is Bible reading time.”
Minimize Distractions
Turn off your phone, or put it on “Do Not Disturb” mode. If you are reading on a digital device, try using apps that block other distracting apps or notifications. Let your family or housemates know that this is your uninterrupted time.
Embrace Structure
Some of us love the discipline and order of a structured Bible-reading routine. Others? Not so much. Still, some structure is key when trying to remain focused on the Word of God. Here are a few tips.
Incorporate it into Your Daily Routine
Incorporate Bible reading into your existing daily habits. For instance, if you have a morning routine of drinking coffee, read a few verses during that time. Linking Bible reading with a habit you already have makes it easier to remember and maintain–think Jesus-centered habit-stacking!
Use a Reading Plan
Having a structured reading plan can provide direction and prevent the feeling of not knowing where to start. There are many plans available – from one-year Bibles to thematic studies. Choose one that aligns with your interests and schedule.
Join a Bible Study Group
Community can add much-needed structure and accountability to your Bible reading. Joining a study group can provide motivation and deeper insight as you talk about the Scriptures with others.
Use Technology (Wisely)
Smartphones can certainly be a source of distraction, but they can also be a great tool for staying focused on the Bible. Here are a couple of ways to use technology to dive deeper into Scripture.
Listen to the Bible
When reading isn’t feasible, listen to the Bible instead. Audio Bibles, such as the Dwell Bible app, are a great way to engage with Scripture while on the go, or while you’re doing chores around the house.
Lean into Creative Technology
It’s 2024, folks. That means that we’ve got technology that can create a creative, immersive experience around the experience of reading the Bible–all from your smartphone. To learn more about how Dwell can help you engage more with the Word through visuals, music, and more, click here.
Engage Your Mind + Heart
Half the battle of finding focus is making sure your heart and mind are engaged in the task at hand. Here are a couple of tips for getting centered before, after, and during your Bible reading.
Start with Prayer
Before you begin reading, take a moment to pray. This can be as simple as praying, God, would you open my heart and mind to understand your Word? This simple act can set the tone for a devotional time–however short or long–that remains in a posture of prayer.
Try Meditative Music
For some of us, music can be a helpful tool for remaining focused on Scripture and drawing us into a deeper experience. The Dwell app comes with original music that’s tailored to specific Scripture passages–a powerful way to stay keyed into your reading!
Reflect and Apply
After reading, take a moment to reflect on how the passage applies to your life. If you like to journal, jot down a few thoughts, questions, and prayers.
Be Patient: Focus is a Journey
As you practice growing in more focused Bible study, be patient with yourself! No one masters a perfect discipline of Bible reading overnight. Integrate a few of these practices into your life and keep at it. A deeper, richer experience of the Scriptures is just around the corner!
Speaking of spiritual disciplines, the practice of giving is also an area of growth for many followers of Jesus. Tithely is an online giving platform that makes generosity to your local church simple, fast, and easy. To learn more about Tithely, click here.
The Bible is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and can always bring us fresh insight, conviction, and perspective. Still, sometimes we need a strategy that can help us engage and connect with the Word of God in a deeper way.
2024 may just be your opportunity to refresh your Bible-reading approach. In the following article, we’ll cover 12 innovative methods for your devotional reading.
Whether you are a long-time Bible reader or just starting, these strategies can help you grow in knowledge and relationship with Jesus.
12 New Ways to Read Your Bible in 2024
Digital Devotions: Embracing Technology
Think beyond scrolling through Scripture. New Bible technology is making it possible to take in the Word of God in a whole new way–incorporating music and visuals with the Bible for a more tailored, richer experience. Ultimately, this can help you stay focused and tuned in, so that the “still small voice” of God has more opportunity to break through the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Audio Bibles: Listen On-the-Go
Audio Bibles, such as the Dwell Bible app, are perfect for those with busy lifestyles or who are more auditory learners. Listen to scriptures while commuting, exercising, or doing daily chores. This is a great way to integrate the Bible into your everyday life!
Journaling Bibles: Reflect and Write
Journaling Bibles, with margins for notes and reflections, encourage a more interactive reading experience. They provide space to jot down thoughts, questions, or insights, personalizing your reading (or if you’re more of an artist, doodle in the margins!)
Visual Bible Study: Engaging with Imagery
For visual learners, illustrated Bibles or studies that use art and imagery can make complex passages more understandable and memorable–remember, this might be a hard copy Bible or a digital Bible.
Thematic Reading Plans: Focused Learning
Try thematic reading plans that focus on specific topics like mercy, justice, women in the Bible, or relationships. This strategy breaks free from chronological reading and helps you dive deeper into topics that might be piquing your interest or curiosity.
Community Reading: Shared Insights
Joining a Bible study group or forming one can offer diverse perspectives and insights, bringing Scripture to life in new ways. Encourage discussion, ask questions, and open up “harder” passages–you may learn insights from someone you never expected!
Historical Context Study: Diving into the Past
Studying the historical and cultural contexts of biblical times can be an incredible way to gain new insight on the Word of God. For example, the cultural significance of Jesus speaking to a Canaanite woman at the well can open up the story of John 4 in a whole new way.
Multilingual Exploration: Exploring in Different Languages
If you’re bilingual or learning a new language, try reading the Bible in that language. It can offer fresh nuances and a deeper appreciation of the texts.
Bible Apps with Interactive Features: Making Study Fun
If you’re competitive or goals-driven, Dwell makes it easy to track your listening time and set reminders that keep you engaged and help you stay on track with your Bible listening aims.
Mindful Reading: Savoring Each Word
Slow, mindful reading of the Bible allows you to ponder each verse and let the words resonate deeply. This is also called lectio divina and can be a profound way to let the Word of God speak.
Scripture Memorization Challenges: Keeping the Word Close
Challenge yourself to memorize scriptures. This practice deepens your understanding and can help solidify truth in a powerful way.
Bible Reading Retreats: Dedicated Time for Reflection
Attending or organizing a Bible reading retreat offers an immersive environment to connect with the Word of God. Retreats can help you slow down, turn down the volume, and reflect on Scripture without the distractions of your everyday life.
Think Outside the Box
God is creative! In 2024, thinking outside the box often involves using technology to grow in spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible. Believe it or not, your smartphone doesn’t have to distract you from Jesus…it can bring you closer when used in the right way!
But don’t limit technology to your devotional life–digital tools can also be used to give to the local Church, connect with your small group, and more. Tithely offers a full suite of tech tools that make engaging with the local church easier and more convenient than ever. Learn more here.
Ground Your Soul in the Word of God, Every Season of the Year
We are not static individuals, the same people we were at this time last year. As much as we love and crave stability, change is a constant in our lives. Our hearts, souls, and minds are being formed daily. How you are formed, especially spiritually, depends on what you are surrounding your heart, soul, and mind with. The conversations you have, what you choose to watch, and the words you read and listen to, all direct your heart, soul, and mind in a given direction.
While having a conversation, watching a show, or listening to an audiobook or podcast may seem benign, they are not neutral, having no effect on who you are and who you are becoming. Actually, the opposite is true. The words you listen to, read, and think about all shape you in one way or another. Often, we passively engage in watching, reading, listening, and conversing, but even then, we are being formed. Like a compass, what you put into your heart, soul, and mind will direct the path of your life. A slight shift may not seem consequential, but like on a compass, even a one-degree shift, later in your journey, can lead you to a completely different destination- a destination to which you may have never intended to travel.
As you listen, converse, and read, your opinions, convictions, and beliefs are being shaped. These then inform the decisions you make and the behaviors you engage in. We are at a critical juncture culturally where the information available to us to inform our lives is insurmountable and having to weed through the sheer volume of it to find the truth can be difficult.
What we need is an unchanging compass for our lives- a tool we can turn towards at any point, that will guide and direct us back towards being spiritually formed by God in the ways he desires. The Bible is God’s compass for your life. The words of Scripture will provide the daily renewal and grounding you are longing for, every season of the year. That is the promise of God’s word- it is unchanging when the rest of our lives are in constant change. The seasons may change, but in God’s word, you will find the unchanging story of God’s great love for you, comfort for seasons of grief and sorrow, guidance for living in a complex world, and grounding for your soul.
When we make a habit of reading, listening to, and meditating on God’s word, daily, we intentionally place our hearts, souls, and minds pointing toward true north on the compass of our lives. Other messages may come at us during the day, but we have positioned ourselves for God’s word to align our hearts, souls, and minds in the direction we are to go in, the truths we are to stand on, and the comfort of finding fulfillment in a relationship with God.
At Dwell it is our desire to help you access the soul-grounding, heart-rooting, mind-shaping Word of God in your actual life.
Our Bible in a Year plans will help ground your soul in the word of God, every season of the year. With 8 distinct plans to choose from, we’ve made it easy for you to access the entirety of God’s word, make a habit of listening to it every day of the year, and pay attention to the ways God is forming your life.
Our 8 Bible in a Year plans include:
The Straight Through Plan where you will explore the Bible from cover to cover, Genesis through Revelation all in less than 23 minutes a day!
The Historical Plan where you will explore the books of the Bible as they were written historically, according to the estimated date of their writing- each day of the year for under 23 minutes a day!
The Chronological Plan leads you on a journey through the Bible in the order the events occurred chronologically, helping you see the Bible in context of their historical significance.
The M’Cheyne Plan takes those who want to devote more time to their Bible listening on a journey through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice during the year. The daily listening experience includes two Old Testament and two New Testament chapters per day.
The Five Day plan helps you explore the Bible five days a week through the year with passages from both the Old and New Testaments in 3-4 chapters a day.
The Genre Plan helps you explore the different genres of the Bible with each day of the week focused on a different genre of Scripture: the Letters, the Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy, and Gospels. In a year you will have listened to all of Scripture through the lens of their genre.
The Old and New Testament Plan will immerse you in listening to one Old Testament and one New Testament passage each day of the year in under 23 minutes a day.
The New Testament Plan is a plan that fits perfectly into the margins of daily life. At just one chapter a day, five days a week, you can listen to the entire New Testament in under 6 minutes a day.
We encourage you to join us in making a goal to listen to God’s Word daily, and we’ve made it very easy to do so, but we also know it can be intimidating to take on listening through the Bible in a year. This is why we created Dwell Daily.
Dwell Daily is a compilation of the central passages of Scripture, essential for a life grounded in the love of God and the truth of the Bible. While the Dwell Daily plan doesn’t cover every single passage in Scripture like our Bible in a Year plans do, there are passages in this plan for every day of the year, getting you into God’s Word in an accessible way.
It is our hope that as you embark on this new year you will choose to join thousands of Dwell app users in a yearly listening plan, as we together commit to being formed by God’s Word, regardless of what seasons this new year brings.
Is it possible to learn the entire story of Scripture in just 30 minutes a day for 30 days?
This is the question that animates and inspires The 30-Minute Bible, a new release from IVP Press. In this book, expert Bible scholar Craig Bartholomew partners with longtime Bible teacher and lay leader Paige Vanosky to bring their shared areas of expertise into conversation, and the results are truly unique and inspiring. Here, in a single volume, you find a rare depth of biblical scholarship that is accessible and inspiring to all Christians, regardless of training, experience, or background.
You may know many of the stories within the Bible, but if you’ve ever struggled to grasp how these stories relate to one another and find their place in the single story of Scripture, then this is the book for you!
In fact, we here at Dwell love this book so much that we’re dedicating an entire summer to it! Head over to our Summer Book Club landing page for all the details and to sign up.
Why don’t you take a minute and hear directly from Craig and Paige? Our Head of Product, Tripp Prince, recently sat down with the authors to ask them a few questions about this book, and for your convenience we’ve broken the interview down into three short segments. Enjoy!
Book Introduction
Hear the story behind this book and how Craig and Paige set about telling the entire story of Scripture in just 30 minutes!
The Six Acts
Central to this book is the organizing principle of “acts” or movements within the Bible. Much like a theatrical performance, these acts invite you to experience Scripture as a powerful drama, with each act inviting you deeper and deeper into the story and reality of the kingdom of God.
Practical Suggestions
In this final section, discover a few practical tips on how to best engage this book and integrate its wisdom and insights into your daily walk with the Lord.
In countless ways, our ambitions in life often outpace our preparation.
We want to run a marathon, but give ourselves a week to train. We want to cook a holiday feast for friends and family, yet attempt to shop and set the menu the day of the event. And even in our spiritual lives, we often run into the same challenges, perhaps nowhere more frequently than in our attempts to the read the Bible.
If we desire a life shaped and animated by the words of Scripture, we must root ourselves in consistent practices of devotion that are born out of steady faithfulness, not a flare of passion for Christ that burns out as quickly as it arrives.
With our new collection of daily Bible plans, Dwell makes daily time in Scripture simple, straight-forward, and sustainable.
Dwell Daily
This 365-day plan is exclusive to Dwell, and is inspired by the listening habits of the Dwell community, featuring the most popular and well-loved stories and passages on the Dwell app. With Dwell Daily, you will spend equal amounts of time in all corners of Scripture, rotating between the Old Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, the New Testament, and the Gospels. Plus, at no more than a few minutes in length, this is a daily Bible habit that anyone can cultivate!
For most of Christian history, Scripture was first and foremost a communal resource, shaping the prayers and imaginations of the family of God as they worshipped together. As such, many Christian traditions continue to emphasize this practice and encourage their members, even when scattered throughout the week, to read the Bible together, following a shared plan of daily passages (commonly called a lectionary).
Now on Dwell you can easily listen to the assigned daily passages from five Christian traditions – Anglican, Catholic, Episcopal, Orthodox, and Protestant – inviting members of these traditions to integrate Dwell into their communal practice of faith, and allowing Christians from other traditions to explore and learn from other parts of the family of faith.
We’ve partnered with the team at Wolfbane Books to build an exclusive plan around their recent release, The Story of God With Us. This plan traces the foundational reality at the heart of the biblical story: God’s desire and determination to be with His people.
We recently sat down with Kenneth and Shay, co-authors of this beautiful new book, asking them to take us behind the scenes of the writing process, exploring the importance of visual art and storytelling in our growth into Christ’s likeness.
Enjoy this in-depth interview, and make sure to pick up a copy of the book and subscribe to the plan in the Dwell app!
Tell us a bit about yourselves: your passion for Scripture, family faith formation, and the spark behind this new book, The Story of God With Us.
(Kenneth) My name is Kenneth Padgett and I’ve been enthralled with God’s Word from the moment I started following Jesus two decades ago. This wonderment of the Word has compelled me to complete a graduate degree in biblical studies, and I’m currently in the thick of post-graduate doctoral work in biblical narrative and theology. I serve as the Scholar-In-Residence at my local church. But before my academic work and church service, I am first a husband and father. My main disciple-making efforts are spent trying to lovingly form my family into flourishing followers of Jesus. These efforts were the main inspiration for writing The Story of God with Us. I needed a resource that would allow my children to experience the sweep of the story of Scripture, while tracing a theological thread from Eden to New Creation. What better place to start than surveying the wonderful reality that God desires to dwell with us, and we with him, always and forever, world without end!
(Shay) My name is Shay Gregorie – I started to follow Jesus when I was in high school. At that time I had some college age youth leaders who really cultivated a love for Scripture in me. I was also fortunate to have a dad who always revered and studied God’s word. Now I’m a dad of eight kids (four boys and four girls) and always looking for resources to help shape their hearts and minds.
That being said, there were SO many different sparks that set this project in motion. One of the most memorable moments was during seminary when one of my professors played a recording of Psalm 136 (in Hebrew) set to music by a group of Jewish singers. That Psalm tells the story of the Old Testament with the repeated refrain, “For His steadfast love endures forever”. It was really captivating and kept you eager to hear how God’s steadfast love was going to be manifested in each scene from Scripture. But as the song progressed and the story rose toward a crescendo, a crescendo never came. The tune and the refrain ended up smoldering out with fading instrumentals. I was so let down. But that’s the way the narrative reads if you only have the Old Testament. At that moment I wanted to hear the crescendo explode with the story of Jesus the King, the Spirit coming, and New Creation! So when Kenneth started talking about writing this story, I remembered the shape of Psalm 136. It was the beauty of that psalm set to music that prompted the shape of The Story of God with Us.
Why do you think we as humans are so captivated by a good story? How is this story approach especially helpful when inviting children to enter into the world of the Bible?
In the beginning God spoke. He is the master story-teller of the cosmos. We were created by a God who speaks, and we bear his image by imitating him. But God does not communicate by giving us excel spreadsheets or grocery lists. Rather, he’s weaving history into an epic drama that puts his glory on display and calls all people to participate in his life-and-light-giving-Story!
If you think about it, we are wired for story. Every human intuitively knows that we are creatures created for story. We constantly tell them, read them, hear them, and watch them. Stories seem to have a unique formational power that can reach into the darkest depths of our being and turn the lights on. How wonderful is it that God has chosen to reveal himself in a grand Story!
We believe deeply that children have a heightened capacity to be formed by story-telling. Like us adults they are wired to know God through his Story, but unlike most of us their wiring is fresh and super-conductive. This makes childhood an excellent time to get to know God through the biblical story.
Our prayer is that The Story of God with Us will be just one of many more resources to come that can help form families through the great unified story of the Bible!
In your book, you tell the grand story of Scripture through the lens of mountains. What do mountain tops have to do with God’s nearness and desire to be with us?
I would argue that even the topography in the Bible tells a story! Let’s do a quick survey of some major moments in the Bible that coincide with God dwelling with his people.
The whole story really kicks off in a mountaintop garden where God dwells with the first couple, Adam and Eve. Did you know that Eden was a mountaintop garden? Consider briefly that rivers flow out of the garden. Which direction do rivers flow? Down. The Prophet Ezekiel (28:13-14) notes Eden’s mountaintop location, saying,
“You were in Eden, the garden of God…You were on the holy mountain of God…”
But Eden isn’t just the dwelling place of Adam and Eve; we see that God is also present, talking and walking in the midst of the garden in Genesis 2-3. In Genesis 4-9 we see humanity descending eastward, away from the life-giving presence of God and into a chaotic realm of increasing death. Eventually a single family is preserved through God’s global judgment, and they wind up on a mountaintop. Noah and his family replay the Eden narrative on Ararat, a mountaintop vineyard where humans fail again. This leads to all humanity coming together to build the Tower of Babel, a man-made rival mountain that was designed to put mankind in the heavens, the realm of God (Genesis 11). Babel represents the height of human rebellion.
The next place where the people of God are gathered to dwell in the presence of God is just after the great exodus from Egypt. In Exodus 19 the Israelites meet God at Mount Sinai. On this mountain God constitutes his people and promises to dwell in their midst. He has them build the tabernacle, a special tent that is designed in the likeness of Sinai. The tabernacle functions as a mobile mountain of God that rests in the center of the Israelite camp. The last scene in the book of Exodus is God filling the tabernacle with his presence. Eventually, this tent becomes a permanent building called the temple. Just like the tabernacle in Exodus 40, God’s presence fills the Temple in 1 Kings 8. The temple rests on Mount Zion; the beloved mountain often referred to in many of the Psalms. Consider Psalm 132:13, “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place.”
Eden, Ararat, Sinai, and Zion are the peaks that tower over the landscape of the Old Testament narrative; a narrative that tells us of a God who desires to dwell in the midst of his people.
Only five pages into the New Testament Jesus is standing on a mountain in Galilee reconstituting his people. There he stood as Immanuel, “God with us.” At the end of Matthew the disciples are gathered on what is perhaps this same mountain listening to the resurrected Jesus proclaim that he will always be with them. John’s final vision in the book of Revelation is that of the Holy City descending to earth onto a very high mountain. As he watches, a loud voice proclaims, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:1-10).
What is the significance of visual art and the many ways it captures the hearts and imaginations of children and adults alike?
We were made for story, but story can be communicated in numerous ways. We are all visual learners. Our eyes “hear” the heavens “declare” the glory of God when we gaze upon their majesty and beauty. God has given the eye a unique ability to produce immediate wonderment, and we should never neglect this gift in storytelling. In The Story of God with Us the two modes of storytelling (hearing and seeing) work together to induce wonder and form a child’s imagination.
Dwell is thrilled to offer a companion Bible listening plan to The Story of God With Us. Do you have any tips or suggestions on ways people can most helpfully explore this plan and dive deeper into the themes introduced in your book?
We’re very excited about this listening plan! The Story of God with Us is a book that is meant to be read many times over. As the story begins to stick in your heart, our prayer is that it will give you place markers for understanding the entire story of the Bible. If you are listening to the plan with your family, it might be good to revisit the corresponding scenes from the book, even leaving it open while you listen. While you don’t need the book to enjoy the playlist, we did intentionally design the playlist to be a scene by scene companion.
Dwell has been such a huge blessing in our own households, and we’re so grateful for this opportunity to provide this playlist. May it bless you and your family!
About the Authors
Kenneth Padgett is a co-founder of Wolfbane Books and co-author of The Story of God with Us. He is a PhD candidate in Biblical Studies at Trinity College, Bristol (UK) and serves in his local church as the Scholar-In-Residence. He also holds a Master’s degree in Old Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Where he met Shay). He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the South Carolina lowcountry with their two young daughters.
Shay Gregorie is a co-founder of Wolfbane Books and co-author of The Story of God with Us. He is an ordained pastor in the Anglican Church of North America and currently serves on the pastoral team in his local church. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (where he met Kenneth). He is a native of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina where he lives with his wife, Catherine, and their eight children.
