(Day 16 of this series called “23 days to a better devotional life.” I’m posting daily this month on devotions.)

Most Christians seem to have their favorite parts of the Bible. Some relate to the Old Testament stories like David slaying Goliath, Noah’s Ark, and Daniel in the lions’ den. Others love the gospels.

We’re all created differently with unique personalities. Different personality types tend to gravitate to certain books. If you’re a creative type, you turn to the Psalms. If you’re a choleric, you turn to action-packed books like Mark and Genesis. If you’re philosophical like me, you analyze the insights in Paul’s letters.

However, even with our different personalities, I’m starting to realize that God wants us to read through the whole Bible.

The Bible states, “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16 NLT). Every book is inspired by God. God speaks to us even in the hard-to-understand books like Leviticus and Ezekiel. If we don’t read certain books, we’ll miss out on something God has to say.

Also, reading the whole Bible helps us understand the individual books and verses better. My friend told me how the Bible made more sense as he read more and more books. I think it’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Each book is like a different puzzle piece. And each time we read a different book, we come closer to having a complete picture of God.

So, do you have a plan to read through the whole Bible? Tomorrow I’ll share a reading plan that I recently came up with. In the meantime, read a couple verses today from a book you’ve never read before. Who knows? God may speak to you in a surprising-but-still-effective way.