Daily Bible Reading (and Flossing) Can Change Your Life

After almost forty years as a dental hygienist, I’ve come across a few clever statements. These are two of my favorites:

You don’t have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep.

Brushing without flossing is like washing your hands without cleaning between your fingers.

If I’m trying to lighten the mood during an appointment, I’ll raise one finger, place the other hand over my heart, and declare, “Be true to your teeth, and they’ll never be false to you.”

Often, my patients will say, “I know flossing’s important, but ____________.” Then they’ll fill in the blank with an excuse. “I’m too busy, sleepy, clumsy, unmotivated.”

For twenty years, I used every one of these excuses too–but not about flossing. (I suspect the dental board might revoke my license if I didn’t floss!) I used these words to explain (and sometimes justify) why I didn’t read my Bible regularly.

“I know Bible reading’s important, but I’m just too busy.”

“I know I’m supposed to read my Bible, but I’m exhausted. Every time I sit down to read, I fall asleep.”

“I know it’s important, but I don’t understand a lot of it.”

“Every year, I commit to read the Bible through, but I lose my motivation.”

I treated Bible reading as an extra, not as a vital part of my life.

Don’t laugh. Learning the importance of flossing has reinforced the importance of reading my Bible.

Stay with me.

When I was a first-year dental hygiene student, I took Microbiology 101. Under the direction of Dr. Brown, we studied every disgusting germ that lives in the human mouth. Aerobic bacteria. Anaerobic bacteria. Staphylococcus. Streptococcus. Fusobacterium. Did you know more than seven hundred organisms live in your oral cavity? Most are harmless, but some can eat holes in your teeth and destroy your gums and bone.

Thankfully, we have weapons to fight them. You guessed it—brushing and flossing.

Brushing and flossing.

After I became a believer in Jesus, my pastor, Dr. Wall, taught me that dangerous and destructive tendencies live in my heart. Selfishness. Laziness. Lust.

But I have weapons to fight them. One of the most powerful weapons is Scripture. “The Bible will keep you from sin,” he said, “but sin will keep you from the Bible.” I took his words to heart. For more than two years, I read my Bible every morning. But then I allowed busyness, fatigue, and confusion to steal my motivation.

“It takes twenty-four hours for plaque to absorb minerals and form the hard deposits we call tartar,” my professor said. “This is why we encourage our patients to floss every day. If we remove plaque before it becomes permanent, it won’t have as much time to destroy our teeth.”

One day a friend and I were chatting about spiritual things. “I read my Bible,” I said, “just not every day.”

What I didn’t realize is that reading our Bible daily is a practice that’s vital to our life as a follower of Christ. Just as flossing helps guard our physical health, daily Bible reading helps guard our spiritual health. Spending time in the Scriptures helps us identify and remove sinful thoughts, attitudes, and actions before they permanently attach themselves to our life. Breaking a day-long sin pattern is much easier than breaking a year-long (or decades-long) sin pattern.

Dr. Brown also taught us this: “When a patient begins to floss, they may complain of tenderness and bleeding. They’ll feel awkward and clumsy. But if they persevere, it will get easier.”

“Developing the habit of daily Bible reading won’t be easy,” my pastor counseled me, “but once you establish the habit, it will seem more natural. Eventually, you’ll come to love it.”

Both my professor and my pastor knew that it takes about a month to develop a new habit. I encourage my patients to commit to flossing every day, ideally at the same time. By the end of the month, they’ll be more likely to reach for the floss before they go to bed or after they eat lunch.

This has been true as I’ve sought to develop (or redevelop) the habit of daily Bible reading. When I made a commitment to read the Bible, I took my pastor’s advice and blocked out fifteen minutes a day. I paired my new habit (Bible reading) with an old habit (eating breakfast), which gave me a greater chance of success. I never skipped breakfast, so maybe I wouldn’t skip Bible reading either.

When my first daughter was born, I placed my Bible next to the chair where I nursed her and read during one of her feedings. During my homeschooling years, I tried reading after the girls went to bed, but I often fell asleep. Then I read what Becky Tirabassi said in her book Let Prayer Change Your Life: “It’s better to be sleep deprived than God deprived.”

Ouch.

I started setting my alarm for thirty minutes before the rest of the household awakened. Sometimes I still felt sleepy, but bright lights and caffeine helped.

Beginning my day with God meant that whatever else happened that day, I’d already spent time with the most important person in my life.

During some of life’s busier seasons, I must fight for a consistent time in the Bible. But I’ve seen the difference daily Bible reading has made in my physical, emotional, and spiritual life. When I neglect the Scriptures, I often feel discouraged and hopeless. Other times, I feel confused or overwhelmed. My relationships suffer because I operate in my own strength rather than relying on God. “Small” sins creep into my life—fear, impatience, selfishness. My thoughts sound more like an unbeliever than a believer.

But as both my professor and my pastor promised, good habits pay off.

Daily Bible reading hasn’t cured every issue I’ve faced, but it has strengthened me to face them. My friend Mandy once said, “I had an awful day today. I skipped my Bible reading this morning because I had too much to do. Looking back, I don’t think spending time in God’s Word would have changed my circumstances, but it would have greatly improved how I responded to them.”

In a world that lies to us, daily Bible reading and prayer fills our minds with truth. It shines a spotlight on sin so we can confess and forsake it. And it reminds us that a mighty, wise, holy, patient, and loving God–not luck or fate–orders our days.

I’ve been a believer in Jesus for more than forty years. I spent twenty of them neglecting and sometimes ignoring the Scriptures and relying on pastors, Sunday school teachers, and other second-hand sources to tell me what God was saying. I’ve spent the other twenty years experiencing the health, joy, and peace that comes out of a daily conversation with the King. I talk to Him through prayer, and He talks to me through His Word. No matter how busy I am, I’ve learned to treat my quiet time as the most important appointment of my day.

Dental science tells us daily flossing helps prevent tooth decay and gum disease. It helps us live healthy physical lives. Scripture tells us that daily Bible reading helps prevent moral decay and soul disease. It’s God’s prescription for a joy-filled, spiritually healthy life.

If you’ve never regularly spent time in the Bible, why not begin today? I love the MacArthur Daily Bible, which divides the Scriptures into 365 daily Bible readings. Each portion contains a section of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and a Psalm and Proverb.

If you used to read the Bible daily but have drifted away, today’s the perfect day to come back. And if you read the Bible regularly, please leave a comment below to share your tips and encouragement.

As my friend and fellow author Jean Wilund often says, “We’ll never truly know and love the God of the Word apart from the Word of God.”

–Written by Lori Hatcher. Used by permission from the author.