What To Do If You Fall Behind On Your Bible Study

What starts off as a desire to grow in my relationship with God often turns to discouragement and guilt.

You see, I often find myself a day or two behind in my Bible reading plan (or, like right now, a WEEK behind šŸ˜³). When this happens, I feel discouraged and like Iā€™m a bad Christian. It makes me want to give up on my reading plan altogether.

And all too often I do, falling into a cycle where I barely open my Bible for weeks. It’s not something I’m proud to admit, but it’s true.

Has this ever happened to you? Please tell me I’m not alone in this.

From my history of falling behind in Bible studies and trying to play “catch up,” I’ve discovered a few different strategies to get back into the Bible study groove after youā€™ve fallen out of it.

 

What To Do If You Fall Behind On Your Bible Study…

 

Have you ever gotten discouraged when you've fallen behind on your Bible reading? Me. Too. Over the years, I've discovered a few strategies to combat this.

 

The best strategy is simply to open up the Word and get reading. However, when one is feeling discouraged and behind, this can be difficult to do. So here are a few other ideas to get you started.

 

1. Skip ahead and read todayā€™s reading, ignoring the days you skipped.

This way, youā€™re reading the Bible and are more likely to keep reading tomorrow.

This is helpful if you’re quite a bit behind and it doesn’t matter if you miss a few days worth of readings.

 

2. Just do the next dayā€™s reading today.

Thatā€™s what Iā€™m gonna do today. Iā€™m just gonna pick up where I left off and do that dayā€™s study. Iā€™ll be a week behind… but so what? After all, Bible study shouldnā€™t be a race to the end.Ā #PreachingToMyself

This is a good strategy if you are doing a study where it could be confusing if you skipped a few readings, like a study-of-a-book-of-the-Bible plan or maybe a read-the-whole-Bible plan.

 

3) Double up every day and play catch up.

This is what Iā€™ve typically done. However, I tend to resent myself whenever I try to do two days readings in one- especially if the readings were long and Iā€™m very behind. (Reading 9 chapters a day can be exhausting for me- especially if I’m discouraged with how behind I’ve become.)

If you only are one day ā€œbehind,ā€ this could be an option for you.

A word on being “behind” in your Bible reading…

If you skip a day or two of reading the Bible, it’s so easy to feel discouraged and behind. When this happens to me I feel bad because I think I’ve let God down and disappointed Him. I feel guilty and I think that going back to my Bible to spend time with Him would just remind Him of how long it’s been since I’ve sat in His presence.

I know that isn’t true.

Deep down I know that we could never disappoint God or let Him down. I once heard a pastor say, “You can’t let God down because you aren’t holding Him up.” That statement greatly impacted me.

So dear friend, if you ever feel like you’ve let God down because it’s been ages since you’ve read your Bible, pray and fight against that feeling. Satan doesn’t want you to spend time with God so he is going to do everything he can to keep you from Him. Don’t make his job easier.

It’s important for us to rememberĀ that Bible reading isnā€™t a race or a competition. We truly canā€™t ā€œfall behindā€ because all that really matters is that we spend time with God.

If youā€™re anything like me though, you feel discouraged when you arenā€™t where youā€™re ā€œsupposed to beā€ in the reading plan, and that discouragement makes you want to give up on reading altogether.

Donā€™t give up.

Swallow your pride and open your Bible today and read. šŸ˜Šā¤ļø

If you need help knowing where to begin, my post “How to Kick-Start Your Quiet Time” post could help you. :)

You might also like:

  1. How To Kick-Start Your Quiet Time This Summer
  2. The 30 Minutes A Day Bible Reading Challenge
  3. 7 Different Ways You Can Have a Quiet Time
  4. 5 Practical Tips For Staying Consistent With Quiet Times
  5. Why You Shouldn’t Bible Surf And What To Do Instead

Posted by & filed under Faith Tips. This post has 2 comments.

2 thoughts on “What To Do If You Fall Behind On Your Bible Study”

  1. Kenna

    Sometimes I feel bad when I read a devotional or a post instead of the Bible for a quiet time. Is it wrong to do this? I still pray and meditate I just donā€™t read the Word.

    1. Kara Beth Post author

      I don’t think it’s wrong if it’s something you do every once in a while, but I’d definitely caution you against always turning to a devotional or post instead of the Bible. :/ The Bible is God’s Word to us and a way He communicates to us today. Devotionals are other people’s words about God’s word. Kinda like reading Spark Notes instead of a book for a literature class… can be helpful in the short run, but can hinder in the long run. I’d encourage you to start reading a little bit of the Bible in addition to your devotional. Maybe start with a shorter book like Mark and just read 5-10 verses a day? And then slowly increase it? :) Just some ideas :)

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