7 Ways to Deepen Your Faith Through Scripture

For many of us, Scripture remains an untapped resource for deepening our devotion to God.

Scripture is the source of much of everything else we do in the Church—from simple daily prayers like the Our Father and the Hail Mary to the readings at Mass and much of what is said during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In turning to Scripture, then, we are turning to one of the vital springs from which the Christian faith bubbles forth.

Here are seven ways to read Scripture in such a way that your faith and love grow.

1. Ask: how does this build me up in love?

The ultimate goal of reading Scripture, according to St. Augustine, is to grow in love.

“So if it seems to you that you have understood the divine scriptures, or any part of them, in such a way that by this understanding you do not build up this twin love of God and neighbor, then you have not yet understood them.” (On Christian Doctrine, 1.36.40).

This is the key: to focus not on the knowledge you might gain, but the love that might be nurtured as a result. As St. Paul writes, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” How might we apply this in practical terms? Whenever you read Scripture simply ask yourself these questions: How is this helping me to deepen my love of God? How does this lead me to love my neighbor more?

2. Get to know Christ.

St. Jerome declared that, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

Church Fathers had a great conviction that the story of the Bible is the story of Christ. It’s not just the New Testament either. From the mysterious priest-king Melchizedek to the wisdom of Proverbs to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, Christ is all over the Old Testament as well.

In reading Scripture we are reading about mankind’s—and our own personal—falling away from God and the epic story of how He draws us back to Himself through Christ.

3. Pray the Psalms with Christ.

The Psalms hold a special place in our faith. They are cited by Jesus more than any other book of the Old Testament. They are the original hymns of the Church. And they form the core of the Liturgy of the Hours today.

In looking at how Jesus quoted the psalms something strikes us: on the Cross, He makes the words of Psalm 22 His own prayer to God the Father. This fact should radically change how we pray through the psalms. We are not just praying them to Christ, we are also praying them with Christ. Indeed, it is hard to read some psalms without hearing the voice of Christ. Here are a few examples:

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

nor let your devout one see the pit. Psalm 16:10

I am numb and utterly crushed;

I wail with anguish of heart. Psalm 38:9

Because zeal for your house has consumed me,

I am scorned by those who scorn you. Psalm 69:10

That Christ is praying with us ought to be a great comfort. It means that our prayers do not need to be ‘good enough’ to reach God. He is already with us, praying with us, and giving us the words we need because He has already given us His Word.

4. Listen to the Spirit.

The Church teaches that Scripture is the inspired Word of God. Specifically, it is the Holy Spirit who worked within the minds of the biblical authors, breathing fire into their words. So, in a very real sense, whenever we read Scripture we are hearing the Spirit speak to us. Nothing extra is required for this to happen: the words themselves are the words of the Spirit.

5. Encounter Scripture and the Trinity.

It is possible to think of Scripture as an encounter with the Trinity. All the words of Scripture point to God’s final Word Incarnate. Again: all the words of Scripture are inspired by the Holy Spirit—just as the Word Made Flesh was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To immerse ourselves in Scripture, then, is to enter into the mystery of the Trinity. Through Christ who is revealed and the Spirit who reveals Him, we grow in both knowledge and love of God the Father.

6. Unite ourselves with Christ.

In our devotional life, we should never just read Scripture. We should always seek out an encounter with the words of God, letting touch the depths of our soul. This is what the prophet Jeremiah must have been talking about when he wrote that,

When I found your words, I devoured them;

your words were my joy, the happiness of my heart,

Because I bear your name,

LORD, God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16

And then he goes on to say,

I say I will not mention him,

I will no longer speak in his name.

But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart,

imprisoned in my bones;

I grow weary holding back,

I cannot! Jeremiah 20:9

The point is that the written words of God should be transformative. Pray them, preach them, and live them.

7. Embrace the adventure of faith.

For most Christians, much of Scripture remains unread and undiscovered. Its vastness should not be a barrier, but an invitation to us—reflecting God’s own infinite greatness. To discover Scripture is to discover God and His wonderful works. Blessed John Henry Newman offered this fitting metaphor for how we should approach Scripture:

"It cannot, as it were, be mapped, or its contents cataloged; but after all our diligence, to the end of our lives and to the end of the Church, it must be an unexplored and unsubdued land, with heights and valleys, forests and streams, on the right and left of our path and close about us, full of concealed wonders and choice treasures." (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 71).

Truly reading Scripture is a sort of adventure of faith, a process of discovery that draws us ever deeper into the mystery of God.