John Piper talks about the challenges and blessings of reading the Bible from cover to cover.

First, three challenges:-

1. You will be opposed. “Satan hates the word of God and will disincline you, blind you, distract you, bore you.” He will do anything to keep you from the word. Pray for his subversive aims to backfire. “Ask God to keep your heart inclined, remove your blindness, grant you focus instead of distraction, and give you excitement instead of boredom.”

2. You will be shocked. The Bible is raw and honest about life and eternal matters. It’s “stunningly graphic in its description, both of our outrageous sin and God’s breathtaking judgment on sin. If you have any kind of sympathetic engagement with the Bible, you will want to throw up at times when you see what God ordains against sin in this world.” Brace yourself.

3. You will be confused. Expect to come away from Bible reading with unanswered questions, because God does not reveal to us everything we want to know (Deut. 29:29). And what he does reveal is sometimes hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:16). You will need preachers and teachers in your life to make progress in the challenging parts of Scripture. Press through the confusion. “Put things together that you can put together. And what you can’t figure out, put on the shelf for later attention, and keep on moving.” Don’t let any question stop your progress.

Now, nine blessings:-

1. Your faith will be deepened. Faith comes from hearing the word, because the Bible was written to give us hope (Rom. 10:17; 15:4).

2. You will experience new liberation from lies and sins that have plagued you (John 8:32).

3. You will be outfitted with new weapons to withstand Satan (Matt. 4:1–11).

4. You will be made more holy (John 17:17).

5. You will become more loving (Phil. 1:9).

6. You will be sustained. “The Bible is the means of God by which he goes on saving us” (1 Tim. 4:16).

7. You will be given an indestructible joy (John 15:11).

8. You will meet God directly, because he meets us in his word (1 Sam. 3:21).

9. You will behold more and more of Christ’s radiant glory (2 Cor. 3:18).

(Ask Pastor John, virtually verbatim)