Did you know that the Bible is the most-read book in the world?
If not, now you do.
Yet despite its unparalleled popularity, many Christians struggle to read it consistently. One of the biggest reasons is that we often skip the crucial step of self-audit and jump straight into setting Bible reading goals.
The result? Unrealistic Bible reading goals based on enthusiasm rather than reality. Whether it is committing to reading too many chapters in a day or waking up earlier than schedules allow, you name it, life happens, and before long, we fall behind, feel discouraged, and eventually abandon the plan altogether.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Before setting a Bible-reading goal, you need to understand yourself and your unique circumstances first.
In this article, I will share 9 self-audit questions to help you set not just smart but also realistic Bible reading goals that align with your life circumstances and foster consistent Bible reading.
So, if you’ve ever started a Bible reading plan with enthusiasm only to quit a few weeks later, like has happened to me several times, grab your favorite drink, settle in, and lets learn together.
Why is self-audit important in setting realistic Bible reading goals?
Before we get to the audit questions, let’s first appreciate why this step is very important. This is why you cannot afford to skip this introspection stage:
i. To tame your enthusiasm
More often than not, we tend to set unrealistic Bible-reading goals in the heat of the moment. Maybe you are attending an end-of-year service, and the preacher exhorts the congregation to take their relationship with God more seriously in the new year. Or you are just scrolling and come across a post where someone shares how beautiful their Bible-reading journey has been, and you are amazed, and you just want to dive in.
However, that enthusiasm, however well-meaning, will fail if it doesn’t reflect your unique realities. Therefore, the audit questions will slow you down and allow you to consider your decision carefully.
ii. Solves the copying problem
Often, we don’t proactively develop our own Bible-reading strategies and goals. We simply adopt what people around us are doing or just what sounds good.
The problem is that what works for someone else might not automatically work for you, as personalities, human experiences, and circumstances are uniquely personal.
Slowing down to ask audit questions allows you to curate sustainable Bible-reading goals that take into account your unique realities, thereby solving the copying problem. This increases the likelihood of setting achievable Bible-reading goals, thereby increasing the chances of success in Bible reading.
iii. Tests our motives
Sometimes, we set Bible-reading goals with the wrong motive. Whether to impress others or prove a point, or to attempt to earn favor with God, wrong motives cannot stand the test of time, which explains why Bible-reading plans fail so often.
The series of self-audit questions helps you test your motives to ensure you are embarking on a Bible-reading journey for the right reason: to know God and be empowered to live for Him.
That said, lets get to the crux of the matter: the introspection questions.
Self-audit questions you need to ask yourself
Want to break the quitting loop and maintain a consistent Bible-reading culture? Here are 10 questions you need to ask yourself and answer honestly before setting Bible-reading goals.
1. What does my current season of life actually look like?
Your capacity is not constant. It varies from season to season. So if you are to set a realistic Bible-reading goal, you need to understand your season.
Do I have long, quiet, uninterrupted time or fragmented moments? Am I in a demanding season of work, parenting, school, or stress? What is my mental state?
Questions such as these will set you on the right path.
A new parent running on broken sleep is not in the same season as a retiree with quiet mornings. In the same way, a student with lots of free time and a working professional who has to juggle work, meetings, and perhaps an evening class have totally different realities.
Yet so many people grab the same daily Bible reading plan regardless of which season they’re in. Little wonder many believers can’t stick to their Bible-reading goals to the end.
Understanding your season will allow you to deploy the appropriate strategy. If you’re in a demanding or chaotic season, you may need to choose a lighter plan or rework your current one to accommodate the season’s demands.
Later, when things lighten up, you can return to the original plan. Or better yet, pick an intensive plan and make the strides.
2. How much time can I realistically commit daily without strain?
Realistically, how much uninterrupted time in your day do you have for your devotion? Not what you aspire to, but what amount of time can you really allocate to consistent Bible reading?
An honest answer to this can be the difference between someone who accomplishes their annual Bible reading goal and the one who falls back a few days or weeks in.
See, most of us set goals based on an ideal version of their schedule, not the actual schedule. Sooner than later, your schedule will catch up with you.
Don’t try to impress anyone (not even yourself). Set a realistic time you can attain without much strain. Don’t just estimate, track your days and assign timelines based on real timeslots in your schedule.
You better start by allocating a realistic time which you can actually achieve consistently and increase gradually, rather than set too high a target that you will miss almost daily and get discouraged and give up on reading the Bible.
3. What time of day am I most mentally alert and least distracted?
As you track your schedules and set realistic timelines, it is also important to factor in how your body works and when it is best to read your Bible.
Broadly speaking, know if you are a morning or evening person. There is no benefit in scheduling your Bible reading time at 5.00 AM only to read it half asleep and yawning all through because you are an evening person and your body cannot handle early mornings.
Timing is key in setting realistic Bible-reading goals. Get a time that aligns with how your body functions.
Likewise, plan around your distractions. For instance, if you are a young parent who needs to prepare kids for school before dashing to work, mornings may not work well because of the potential distractions.
You might want to consider another quieter, less distracted time of your day, maybe over lunch or in the evening, for your consistent Bible reading.
Bottom line: pick the time slot where your mind is clearest and you are least distracted.
4. What is my goal in this?
This is where motives are clarified and conviction grounded. Answer this question honestly: I want to read Scripture consistently because ___.
Isn’t that obvious? It is not, well, at least not for everyone. Many people just jump onto the Bible-reading bandwagon without asking themselves why.
It’s January and everyone in church is doing a January reading plan, so I won’t be left behind. That’s what we call hype.
Hype can be good, for that’s how many started and built the habit. The problem with hype, however, is that it is short-lived. Hype is a spark, not the fuel. When excitement wanes, as it always does, you will struggle to remain consistent.
That’s why you need to answer the question why and build your conviction around it. Unlike hype, conviction is founded on reason and stands the test of time.
You cannot afford to skip this audit question when setting Bible reading goals.
5. What usually causes me to fall off track? And if I quit before, what exactly made me quit?
Most of us explain our past failures in Bible reading in broad, self-condemning terms. This only serves to discourage us further and push us away from God.
Who wants to go where they are condemned?
When you get more specific and audit why exactly you fall off track or quit, you can identify what went wrong and how you can improve.
Additionally, it will also allow you to confront the excuses (which are usually dressed as humility) and accept the challenge to improve.
Other times, though, it actually absolves you of guilt as it shows the fault was with the system you set, and not necessarily you.
If you want to set a realistic Bible reading plan, dig out the past and understand why previous attempts did not work out. For instance:
- I quit because I missed a few days, and I couldn’t recover.
- The plan was too demanding, assigning too many chapters a day.
- I didn’t have a fixed time in my schedule for devotion.
- My accountability structures failed.
- I didn’t understand what I was reading and got discouraged.
- The Bible version was too complex.
- I didn’t have all the necessary tools and resources.
These are just general examples. But before you pick another plan, ensure you have found solutions to the issues you have highlighted that may have derailed you or made you quit.
Otherwise, you are bound to repeat the same mistakes and get the same results.
6. How consistent am I with other things?
Your Bible reading will not exist in isolation. How consistent you are with other general things like exercising, journaling, dieting, etc., will translate to how consistent you will be with your Bible reading.
If you generally struggle with consistency, chances are you will also struggle with it in your Bible reading.
So you will need additional measures to enhance consistency, e.g., tying your Bible reading to an existing habit and stronger accountability structures, which someone who is generally consistent with things may not need.
Moreover, past patterns also predict your approach to building consistency.
Some people thrive on small, steady wins and burn out fast on big commitments. Others need a bold, all-in commitment to feel motivated at all. Neither is superior, but picking the wrong style for your personality sets you up to fail before you’ve even started.
In building other habits, did you succeed with small steps? Then set your Bible reading goals around small, steady steps rather than big leaps.
If you are the all-in kind of guy, you are free to do the big leaps.
Understanding your consistency patterns is very important when setting realistic Bible-reading goals.
7. What accountability structures do I have around me?
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together, the saying goes. So, if you want to go far in your consistent Bible reading journey, wisdom dictates that you read it alongside others.
If you are the only one who knows you are doing this, it is easy to quit when motivation dips or you encounter a difficult season. After all, there is no one to hold you to your words.
There is safety in community.
To increase your chances of success, look around you and assess the accountability structures you have in place.
If you have no one, recruit one. Whether it be a spouse, friend, Bible study group members, or whoever God leads you to, talk and agree on a check-in schedule.
A weekly check-in schedule works for many.
Christianity is communal. Enjoy it in the communities God so graciously provides.
8. How long am I planning to do this?
When setting SMART goals for Bible reading, you need to define the timelines. An undefined timeline quietly becomes an indefinite burden, and indefinite burdens are exhausting to carry.
A generic I’m going to read my Bible more does not cut it. It lacks a finish line and checkpoints to evaluate and adjust along the way. You need to be specific.
Instead, you can say: I’m committing to this for the next 90 days, then I’ll reassess. Or I am committing to this Bible reading strategy for the next one, but I will have monthly check-ins to self-review.
Can you spot the difference that introducing a timeline introduces? It makes it a tangible goal that you can actually review.
A clear timeline is a key ingredient for realistic Bible-reading goals. Maybe your previous Bible reading goals failed because they lacked this key ingredient.
As you decide on a new Bible reading goal or when doing your reviews, set a timeframe. It could make all the difference.
9. How will I measure progress, and what would success actually look like for me?
You cannot chase a goal you have not defined. And it is virtually impossible to ascertain success if you don’t measure progress.
This is the thing: without a clear definition of success and progress, you can live every day feeling like you are failing when you are actually doing well.
So, define what success is to you. For instance, if I read my Bible faithfully 4 out of 7 days, that’s a successful week. That will allow you to measure progress.
If you hit 6/7 days, you are doing good. 7/7 days means you have aced it. You need to keep doing what you are doing, for it is working well.
If you do 3/7 in a particular week, you know you are falling below par. If that happens week after week, it shows your Bible-reading goal is seriously flawed, and you might want to consider adjustments during your review sessions.
As you define success, it’s also important to be realistic. A 7/7 hit every week is a good, ideal goal, but not a realistic measure of success. Life happens and you may not hit it every other week.
As such, if you want to measure success by never missing a single day, you’ve set yourself up for an impossible standard. Soon, guilt will pile up when you fall short of your impossible standard.
Remember, you need realistic measures to set realistic Bible reading goals.
Don’t skip this step
Before you set a new Bible-reading goal or start another Bible app plan, sit down with these nine questions first. Answer them slowly and honestly, even when the honest answer is uncomfortable.
Then and only then build your goal. With that, you will be sure you are setting realistic Bible reading goals that reflect your unique realities. A goal built on truth about your real life will outlast a goal built on a single moment of inspiration, every single time.
With realistic Bible reading goals, the chances of sticking with it to the end are very high. Don’t skip this all-important step.
Which of these ten questions hit hardest for you? Let me know in the comments section.
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