First off, I will admit that I am an avid reader who tries to read at least one new book every two weeks. Secondly, I am in no way saying that all Christians should read as much or even more, but in one way or another I hope to show just how much benefit there is to reading and why Christians should take the opportunity to start the habit now.
According to a study by Pew Internet, 23 percent of Americans had not read one single book in part or in full in the past year. With the rise of various online media, meaningful, in-depth reading is becoming a dying practice.
But reading can be helpful in so many ways, especially to our faith. Here are three reasons why Christians will highly benefit from building a habit of reading.
Discipline
It should tell us a lot how God teaches Bible reading as an important spiritual discipline. There is no reason to believe that reading books that build us up in the faith or improve our skills, personality or behaviour will not honour God as well.
Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Being God's workmanship takes discipline and reading can help us build that discipline.
Increase in Knowledge
Proverbs 2:10 says, "For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." Knowledge is wealth as the old saying goes. Increasing knowledge increases our value and reading can be a great way to add to our knowledge. While reading Christian books, articles and news can help, so can reading other literature that adds value to you.
Knowledge of things that glorify and honour God will always be to our advantage and bookshelves are full of parenting, self-help, faith, and even fiction books that can give us hope and power.
Enjoyment
It might not appear to be as enjoyable as watching TV or spending time on social media, but is reading really more boring? I beg to differ. Television and social media are not more enjoyable, just less strenuous to the brain. But reading can bring a great deal of enjoyment and leisure as well. In fact, given enough time, it can show more enjoyable benefits than one would think.
Reading allows us to see beauty and let creativity run wild with wonder and that - without of a shadow of a doubt - puts a smile on God's face, even probably more so than having our brains fried with electronics.
