The purpose of reading is to gain information. When we read our brains have to compute the words to make sense of them so that an understanding is acquired. This is how the process works, but how many times have you read something and your eyes did the reading but your mind did not pay any attention?
For some reason, this happens very often to Christians when they are reading the Bible. It happened to me a few days ago. I read a short passage in Psalms and I stopped because I realized I had no idea what I just read! We could list many different reasons why our minds drift and neglect to focus during our Bible reading. Our minds drift to our schedules, other people, our responsibilities, etc... However, no matter what the reason may be, there is one common denominator and that is the enemy. Satan wants to steal the joy and fruit that comes from our time in the Word by enticing our minds to focus on other things.
In Mark 4:12 Jesus spoke about being, "ever hearing but never understanding". That is not what we want to be doing. We want to have our hearts and minds open to God's word so that it creates an understanding within us that leads to spiritual maturity. How do we do this? Well, my best answer is to ask the Lord to help you understand and to seek Him in prayer before reading your Bible so that your heart is right before you ever start reading. (That is my plan!)
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