When I was little, my parents guarded one daily non-negotiable: read your Bible first, then you can watch your afternoon cartoons. I loathed that rule. I would plop down with my Bible, grumbling under my breath, racing through the reading just so I could get to my show.

But something unexpected happened.

By the time I reached college I had wandered from church and wandered straight into a mess of my own choices. That old routine quietly held me together. I wasn’t living for Jesus, but I kept reading Scripture. And in a season when I was drowning in compromise, the Bible became the one thin rope I still held on to.

Now as an adult, I look back and thank God for parents who patiently built that habit into me. Seminary sharpened my hermeneutics and expanded my theology, but life—the real, gritty, heartbreaking parts of life—has shown me just how desperately I need Scripture to keep me awake, anchored, and honest.

So… do we really need to read the Bible every day?

And if so, why?

Most of us jump straight to verses like Joshua 1:8 “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips… meditate on it day and night…” It’s a solid argument. But I think the picture is even richer than that.

1. We forget fast

I don’t know about you, but I can listen to a whole sermon, feel deeply moved, walk out the door… and promptly forget the entire thing by lunchtime. My heart leaks truth. Yours probably does too.

That’s why I need the Word every day: to remember, to recalibrate, to reawaken what I already know but so quickly lose.

2. We’re constantly being shaped by other voices

Every scroll, every conversation, every “hot take,” every well-crafted argument online is someone m always trying to form the way we think. And honestly, a lot of it sounds compelling, even when it quietly drifts away from God’s heart.

Daily Scripture brings us back to center. It trains us to recognize God’s voice above the cultural noise.

3. We’re in a relationship with Someone we can’t see

Loving an invisible God is beautiful and hard. Prayer lets us speak to Him, but Scripture is one of the clearest, most faithful ways He speaks back.

If I want intimacy with Him, I can’t live on old echoes.

I need fresh words, fresh reminders, fresh comfort, fresh conviction.

That’s why daily Bible reading isn’t just a rule or a discipline. it’s a lifeline.

Not to make us “better Christians,” but to make us alive, steady, and close to the God who is already seeking us.