71 Hours

It only takes a quick google search to find out that the 'real time' it takes for an average reader to read the Bible from cover to cover is under 72 hours. One site says 70 hours and 40 minutes. I saw a tweet just this morning where Don Whitney said it can be done in 71 hours.

71 hours.

Say you are a Christian for 50 years (age 25 to age 75 and then you pass on into glory). You will have lived 438,000 hours as a Christian. Knock off 50 hours a week for work, 56 hours a week for sleep, and say another 50 hours a week for family, church, and other things, that leaves you roughly 12 hours a week of 'free time'. Yeah, I know: often that 'free time' is used for ball games, or volunteering, or mowing, etc. But still, go with me here.

12 hours every single week. 

If you are a Christian for 50 years, that's something like 31,200 hours. At that rate you could read through the bible 439x in 50 years! But that's not realistic for the vast majority of us is it? But what if you just gave a mere 10% of your time to focused Bible reading? Actually, not even 10% of your entire time, but just 10% of your free time. What would that look like?

Over the course of 50 years, that's 3,120 hours.

How many times could you read through the entire Bible in that amount of time?

44 times.

And that's just giving 10% of your free time to the Lord to read Scripture. How does that translate to 'real time' every day?

Here's the math: 12 hours a week divided by 7 days a week = 1.71 hours a day of 'free time'. Divide that number by 10 to get your 10% and that equals = 0.171 hours a day to give to the Lord in reading His Word. Multiply that by 60 to see how many minutes that would be: 10.26 minutes. Or about 10 minutes, 15 seconds every day.

Yup. 10 minutes, 15 seconds every day and in 50 years you'll have read through the bible over 40x.

Now, here's the sad thing. Many Christians today feel as though it is a great accomplishment if they have read through the entire Bible even 1x in their life. But I've just shown how if you give the Lord only 10 minutes every day, you can read through the Bible 44x! And many Believers in the Bible Belt are Christians longer than 50 years and they can give the Lord more than a mere 10% of their free time. It's honestly a travesty how little we know our Bibles.

Of course, nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to 'read through the Bible'. But Jesus tells us (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3) that 'Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God' (Matt. 4:4). And King David tells us that Scripture is to be more desired "than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb" (Psalm 19:10). 

Do we think God breathed out (2 Tim. 3:16) any of His words arbitrarily? Do we think we need books like 'Jesus Calling' to make God's words more relevant and personal? (We DON'T!). Is Scripture a treasure to you? Is it worth at least 10 minutes and 15 seconds of your focused attention every day? 

And of course, I know some will be reading this post and say "Hey, but I'm not an average reader. I read really slow." Well, chances are, you don't read twice as slow as everyone else, but let's say you did. 10 minutes a day would still have you reading through the Bible 22 times in 50 years! Not to mention all the time you have when in the Bible at your local church during Sunday School, Preaching, and Small Groups (all the more reason to make those!).

Truthfully, there are other valid alternatives to reading Scripture than just beginning in Genesis and reading 10 minutes 15 seconds a day all the way through Revelation and then starting over. You may focus on just a few books of the Bible for a season and read them over and over to get to know them better (see this post by Jim Elliff). But, even then, over the course of your walk with Jesus you would have still read through all of the Bible multiple times. 

The main point in all of this is that we aren't as busy as we think when it comes to Bible reading. I'm not trying to tell you how to read your Bible, just that you do have the time to invest if you'll take the opportunity to do so. In fact, if we set our alarms just 10 minutes earlier every day, we could accomplish this and really not miss the sleep all that much. And another factor to consider is that I think the Bible is worth more than just 10 minutes a day! But, even at just 10 minutes, you can accomplish way more Scripture intake than you probably thought you could. Don't look at just here and now. Look at 5 years down the road. Look at 10 years down the road. Look at 50 years down the road. Do you really want to get to age 75 and realize that you neglected so much precious time that you could have spent in God's Word? 

How will you invest your time? 10 measly minutes every day to know Scripture better than you ever have in your life. But guess what? It's not just knowing Scripture is it? It's knowing the God of Scripture! You see, the Bible is how we grow in our knowledge of who God is! And through His Word He grows us into the likeness of Christ (John 17:17). You want to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18)? Think about what you'll do with those 10 minutes every day (and then some!). As Americans, we really have no excuses for not knowing the Bible better than we do.

As I wrap this up, isn't it a very comforting thought to know that Jesus died even for the sin of neglecting Scripture? No one can 'read the Bible' into heaven; rest in the finished work of Jesus. But resting in Jesus isn't sleeping our way through life. If you've been neglecting your Bible, pick it up, dust it off, repent and trust that Jesus' blood is enough to cover that sin too, and then take it up and read it. Every day. 10 minutes or more.

You won't regret it.

P.S. Dr. Don Whitney has a helpful Bible Reading Record that you can print off. It will help you keep track of what chapters of the Bible you've read. This isn't just to 'show off' but to keep a record so you can make sure and read through every word of God multiple times over the course of your life.