Previously, we have seen why every Christian should adopt consistent Bible reading and explored tips on how to maintain a consistent Bible reading culture.
In this article, we’ll discuss 10 big obstacles to consistent Bible reading and remedies for each.
Hopefully, it will help you to uncover what has been holding you back and give you actionable pointers to help launch you into a fruitful and impactful Bible reading experience.
Let’s roll.
1. Lack of Time
One common reason many believers give for not reading the Bible consistently is that they are busy and don’t have time.
Yes, we are busy people, but is time the real issue?
I bet not.
This is how most of us live: You wake up late, rush through your day, and by the time you’re winding down, you’re too tired even to pray, let alone open your Bible.
Time is not necessarily an issue; the problem is that we don’t plan for Bible reading time. We leave it to chance. We go about our days and hope to find some unspecified time for devotion.
This sets up for failure. Unplanned things seldom happen.
The Remedy
As you plan your day, set aside a specific time for Bible reading. If it can be a constant time every day, the better, to allow your mind to settle into the routine.
You could even tie Bible reading time to an existing habit like your morning coffee or bedtime to increase the chances of consistency.
You won’t get any extra time in the day. So, prioritize and plan for consistent Bible reading time.
2. Sin: Obstacles to consistent Bible reading
Sin is the silent but sure separator (Isaiah 59:1-2).
This one’s hard to admit. Sometimes, you’re avoiding the Word because deep down, you know it’ll confront something in you.
Or tell you to do something you don’t want to do. For instance, to forgive someone you have vowed never to forgive. Or leave a toxic, sinful relationship that draws you away from Yahweh.
The old saying is true: the Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.
See, sin breeds shame, and shame makes you hide. Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?
The Remedy
Don’t live in sin. If the Spirit convicts you of any sin, repent quickly. God is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:8-9).
God’s Word isn’t just a hammer, it’s a healing balm (Jeremiah 23:29/ Psalm 107:19-21). Yes, it convicts, but it also restores.
Run to God in His Word even when you feel unworthy in sin. That’s when you need Him most. The sick need the doctor, not those who are well.
Jesus came and died for lost sinners (Luke 19:10).
As you read the Bible, He will convict you of your sins and strengthen you to leave the sinful ways (Titus 2:11-14).
Nobody comes to God and remains the same.
And even regarding the things you don’t want to do but fear that God will tell you to do, go to Him and allow Him to work out His will in your life.
A consistent Bible reader is a righteous Christian. Go your way and sin no more.
3. A hardened heart
Let’s buttress point two.
One of the other common yet subtle obstacles to consistent Bible reading is a hardened heart.
Sometimes you are so sure what the Bible will demand of you, but you are not ready to give in. Similarly, the fear of conviction and change will keep you away from the Bible.
Jonah illustrates this point so well.
God calls Jonah to go preach in Nineveh, but he is very reluctant.
Why?
It’s not because he was lazy or did not believe in God. In fact, He believed in God so much so that he was unwilling to go to Nineveh.
You see, Nineveh was the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire. And the Assyrians had inflicted despicable violence on Israel. Hence, many Israelites, Jonah included, hated them to death for this.
So, well aware of the potency of God’s Word, Jonah knew that if he preached God’s Word to them, they would be convicted to repent and be saved. But he was keen to watch them face God’s wrath. He opted to take the ship to Tarshish.
This explains why Jonah was unwilling to preach to Nineveh. Perhaps he even saw it as the perfect opportunity for them to pay for their wicked acts against Israel, finally.
Can’t blame the man.
The Bible can be scary. It can mess with your comfort zone by challenging your habits and exposing your idols.
Simply, it can flip your worldview.
The Remedy
This is the thing, though. God’s correction is an act of love (Hebrews 12:6). He means well for you. All that He tells you to do is for your good.
You can trust His wisdom and love even when you can’t see sense in it yet. And even when it is hard, you can lean on God’s strength.
Don’t harden your heart. Neither should you fear. Allow the Transformer to work out His transformation in you and give you a new, malleable heart (Ezekiel 36:26).
You have two options: Either take the easy path of obeying quickly and aligning with God’s will or going Jonah’s way.
Either way, you will do God’s bidding, but if you harden your heart like Jonah, you will get there bruised. Running away from God’s will will cause you pain and sorrow.
Save yourself the hassle. Let loose and obey quickly, for delayed obedience is actually disobedience.
4. Distractions: Obstacles to Consistent Bible Reading
You sit down to read, but then ding!, a notification pulls you in. Suddenly, you’re watching reels or doom-scrolling, and your quiet time has vanished.
For a fact, we live in a noisy world. Everything around us is always baying for our attention with endless notifications.
Our phones are usually the primary culprit. From social media to entertainment, phones are the gateway to all sorts of dopamine-surging and distractive things and activities.
Worse, phones are not just a distraction; they also alter our minds and habits over time.
Generally, an adult looks at their phone 205 times a day! That is equivalent to once every 5 minutes, excluding sleeping time.
You know what that means?
Reduced attention span, mental fragmentation, mental fatigue, and addiction to quick hits over deep study.
The Remedy: obstacles to consistent Bible reading
You need to silence these external noises to navigate the modern age replete with distractions. Identify the triggers and silence the noises.
The first step is to create a focused environment in your home where you can have your personal Bible studies. When your devotion time comes, proceed to the place, shut out the world, and have your quiet time with God.
If you must carry your phone, have it on silent or do not disturb mode. Otherwise, just leave it in another room.
That way, you will have a quiet, uninterrupted time with God.
5. Disillusionment with God
Let’s face it, life is not all rosy. There come seasons where life serves us one bitter pill after another.
It could be a piercing heartbreak. Or grief: grieving the loss of a loved one or a precious thing. Maybe it is a life-threatening illness.
Whatever it is, reading the Bible feels impossible, even cruel, when your world is falling apart.
The pain is multiplied manifold if you trusted God, prayed, and believed, but things didn’t work out. You feel God let you down. Reading the Bible feels like rubbing salt in the wound.
This can lead to disillusionment with God, one of the other common barriers to consistent Bible reading.
Well, there is no easy way around that. Allow yourself to feel bad, to feel low. Grieve if you have to. Talk to someone if it will make you feel better. If silence is your thing, have the quiet reflective moments.
Don’t just wallow there for too long. The enemy of faith, the devil, could easily plant a seed of doubt in your heart.
The Remedy
God’s Word is not just for mountaintop moments—it’s for the valleys too. Likewise, God does not only relate to us in good times; He remains God even in the difficult seasons. He suffered more than any human being ever will and invites us to partake in His comfort (Hebrews 4:14-16).
God understands your pain more than you can imagine. Don’t run away from Him in painful times; go to Him. Pour out your heart to Him. Express all your frustrations. God understands you and will comfort you.
He is a man of sorrow familiar with our pains (Isaiah 53:3-5).
Moreover, God gives us resources to carry us through such difficult seasons. Providentially, He Has equipped people to sing heavenly songs with deep, encouraging, and inspiring messages. Listen to such in your low seasons.
Also, you have the Psalms. You will find a Psalm that captures just every human emotion. Find a suitable one to carry you in your dark season.
All that to say, God and suffering are not mutually exclusive. You can go through the difficult times in God, drawing strength and comfort from Him. That way, pain will draw you closer to God, and not push you away.
6. Defeatist myths: obstacles to consistent Bible reading
The battle is won or lost in the mind, it is said.
So true.
Could some beliefs you hold as truth be one of the hindrances to consistent Bible reading? Defeatist myths like:
- No one can read the Bible consistently.
- You need to be a religious expert/ theological knowledge to read the Bible
- Consistent Bible reading is for “super Christians”, the so-called deep Christians.
- The Bible is impossible to understand.
- If you read the entire Bible, you could go mad (crazy, right?)
- The Bible is outdated and irrelevant in the modern world.
- You must be sinless to read the Bible.
These are but a few examples. This is the thing, though, if you hold such limiting beliefs, you will condemn yourself to failure even before you open the Book.
Why try reading the Bible when no one can hack consistency? Why open it, and I don’t have any theological training? I don’t consider myself a super Christian. And so on.
The mind is a very powerful tool. Your life reflects your thoughts. In other words, you become like your thoughts. So, developing the right mindset as you embark on the journey of consistent Bible reading is essential.
The Remedy
It’s simple: replace the myths with the truth of the gospel. Believe right, and you will be halfway there in your journey to consistency.
Believe that God Has given you everything you need to read the Bible consistently and go ahead to do just that. You don’t need theological experience to read the Bible; come humbly and let the Holy Spirit unravel it.
By the way, super Christians don’t exist. Neither do we have perfect, sinless Christians. We are all sinners saved by grace. Don’t write yourself off. We can only relate with God on a grace basis, not our works.
Saints, God will not ask of you what He Has not empowered you to do. When He asks us to commune with Him in His Word, He Has given us every resource to read, understand, and apply it.
Believe Him over any contrary voice you hear out there.
7. I just don’t get it
Granted, some Scriptures are just difficult to decipher.
Many of us get lost in the endless genealogies and repetitive laws in the Torah. The mystical language and descriptions in the prophetic books don’t make it any easier. What of the complex doctrines like Trinity, God’s sovereignty vs human responsibility, you name it? Let’s not even mention the mysteries in Revelation.
When you encounter such difficult texts, it’s easy just to throw up your hands and give up on the Bible altogether because you just can’t get it.
But don’t give up on the Bible.
See, rather than put you off, the difficulty in some texts is simply the invitation of a loving Father to commune with Him even deeper. Wrestling with and seeking God to help you understand certain Scriptures will enhance your relationship with Him.
If Scripture were straightforward all the time, maybe we would take Scripture lightly. Instead of drawing us closer to God, we might have developed arrogant self-reliance.
Therefore, let not the initial lack of understanding of some Scripture be another of the obstacles to consistent Bible reading; embrace it. It is a blessing, not a curse.
Remedy: obstacles to consistent Bible reading
Mark Twain, the old American writer, skeptically quipped: It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do.
Right on.
Though he said that cynically, there is a truth in that statement.
As you read the Bible, there are some things you won’t understand, but there is much more you will understand. Don’t be grounded by what you don’t understand; capitalize on what you do.
Meditate on and apply them in your life, and keep reading the Bible. Sooner than later, God will unravel the parts you don’t understand.
Now, here are some helpful suggestions on the complex texts.
By all means, pray and seek God to reveal the meaning to you. But as you do so, remember that God sometimes reveals the meaning through other people. So don’t fixate on waiting for a vision straight from heaven.
First, research. Compare what other Bible versions say about the text. You might find a Bible version that writes in simpler terms.
If that doesn’t help much, look at what other people are saying. Google and read articles on the given topic. Or search for it on YouTube and see what people have said about it. You can also look for relevant books and delve deeper into the subject.
Feel free to also ask mature Christians around you or your spiritual leaders. They, too, can give helpful insights.
Leverage the resources that God Has given us to understand His Word more.
Pro tip: Every believer keen on consistent Bible study should get a good study Bible. A study Bible gives you the context of a text, explanation, other related Scripture, etc., enhancing your understanding of Scripture. If you don’t have a study Bible, consider investing in one soon. They don’t come cheap, but they are worth every coin spent.
8. Reading without a structure
How does reading the Bible without a structure, one of the obstacles to consistent Bible reading, you might ask.
Just this.
If you open the Bible randomly and pick a random verse for the day, you will quickly get bored with your Bible study or give up on it.
This is for a couple of reasons.
One, you will have nothing to look forward to.
Every time you open the Bible, it will feel new. See, structure brings a sense of continuity. You will know where to stop for the day, and when you open the Bible next, you will know where and what you will be reading.
Two, a structured, consistent Bible reading plan provides a means to keep track. Based on the plan, you can easily track the progress. It will allow you to see what you are doing well so that you can do more, or know when you are faltering and put in the necessary control measures to return on track.
Without a structure, it’s a freefall. Save maybe for frequency, you can’t tell the progress, as there is nothing to measure the progress against. It’s very easy to drift or stop reading the Bible altogether.
Three is related to the seventh point: understanding text. Unstructured Bible reading could compromise your overall understanding of the Bible. The Bible is one long story of man’s redemption, told in several books written by various authors at varying times.
Without a structure that ensures you read the Bible progressively in its entirety, you won’t understand the Bible story well. Without understanding, Bible study can be frustrating, and people end up giving up on it.
Remedy
Plan and decide how to do it before you embark on consistent Bible reading. Don’t leave it to chance.
Luckily, we have plenty of resources you can use. From websites to Bible apps, there are plenty of structured reading plans you can use. You can survey and settle on one that meets your needs.
If Bible reading plans are not your thing, you can do it freestyle. You only need to structure your reading and set goals/ targets. This will allow you to track your Bible reading, and you will find your devotion fruitful and fulfilling.
9. Adopting an unrealistic reading plan
Talking of Bible reading plans, one of the other serious obstacles to consistent Bible reading is adopting an unrealistic reading plan.
Like other plans, your Bible reading plan must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART).
Relevant to this point is that the goal must be realistic and attainable.
It’s human to set bigger when setting goals optimistically, but tame your aspirations. Be honest and pick the Scripture you can handle comfortably in a day.
If you settle for a goal too big to keep up with, you will set yourself up for failure. You will soon start falling back, and the zeal for study will decrease as the backlog grows.
At this point, it will be very easy to give up.
And it won’t be effective and beneficial either. For the Word to have the intended effect, you must read, understand, meditate on it, and live it out.
If you pick too many chapters a day, you won’t be able to process them to the point they become a part of you. So it’s counterproductive. You will just be ticking the devotion box.
That said, let me say this carefully.
Currently, reading the Bible in a year is promoted in many quarters. While it can be good, don’t take it up blindly. They require a person to read multiple chapters from the Old and New Testaments daily.
If you are a fast reader and can do it comfortably, go for it. Otherwise, you will be frustrated soon when you cannot keep up. Get a reasonable plan that will allow you to go at your own pace. Provided you are reading your Bible consistently, however slow, you are on the right path.
Remedy: obstacles to consistent Bible reading
Honesty is key. Be honest with yourself and pick a realistic reading plan/ structure. You would rather start small and grow over time than start big and fail.
Don’t insist on eating the entire plate of food in one bite. You will choke to death. Take the mountain a bite at a time.
That’s only possible with SMART goals. Plan and let your consistent Bible reading plan be, among other things, attainable and realistic.
10. Fear of failure
This is the quiet voice that says, “You’ve tried before and failed, so don’t set yourself up for disappointment again.”
If you have tried consistent Bible study before and failed, the fear of failure could hold you back. It could be paralyzing.
When you think of starting again, you fear you will fail like last time. If you are not careful, it could prevent you from attempting again.
But why should you base your future on your past?
Remedy
Don’t allow a bad past to extinguish the hope of a better tomorrow. Start again regardless of how your last attempt(s) went.
Who knows. This attempt could be the breakthrough attempt. One that could open you up to a consistent bible reading culture.
Therefore, adopt some positivity. Instead of the defeatist resignation “what if I fail?”, why not say: What if I hack it this time?
Conclusion: Obstacles to consistent Bible reading
The road to consistent Bible reading is paved with resistance, but don’t give up on your Bible reading. Victory and a victorious Christian life lie on the other end of the obstacles. It all boils down to:
- Making time for Bible study by prioritising and planning.
- Forfeiting sin and living a humble, repentant life.
- Allowing God to transform your heart to quick obedience.
- Setting aside distractions and quietening your heart to hear God.
- Drawing strength from God in difficult times and not allowing disillusionment to lead to doubt.
- Abandoning defeatist myths and believing what God says.
- Reading on even when you don’t understand some Scripture, for God will bring clarity in due course.
- Having a structured way of reading the Bible by getting a good reading plan.
- Choosing a reasonable Bible reading plan with realistic and attainable daily reading portions.
- Pushing back on the fear of failure, believing you will make it reading through the Bible.
What other obstacles have you encountered in your Bible reading journey, and how have you dealt with them? Feel free to share it in the comments section.
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