Author and ‘The Bible Recap’ podcast host Tara Leigh Cobble recently shared how reading the Bible in its entirety transformed her life and encouraged fellow believers to do the same.
Despite growing up in a Christian home, Cobble admitted that she lacked interest in reading God’s Word until a pastor encouraged her to read it cover to cover. As a result, she shared how that experience changed how she understood Scripture and grew more in love for the Lord.
"I fell in love with God through this conduit of his words," Cobble told CBN News in a recent interview. "So, something that I always knew and admired and respected and knew was true, I then fell in love with."
Although Cobble did not like reading the Bible during her first completed reading, her pastor encouraged her to try again. This time, however, she realized that she needed to read the Bible in light of who God is rather than just what He could give her.
"I was looking for the character and the person of God instead of my to-do list, my takeaway, my action step, my application points. The Bible isn't about me. It's for me. It's not about me. It's about God. It's about who He is," she explained.
In 2019, she launched The Bible Recap podcast, which offers listeners a chronological reading of the Bible in a year along with Cobble’s commentary. Since its launch, the podcast has over 300 million downloads and recently reached the No. 1 podcast in All Categories on Apple Podcasts.
“We are blown away that people want to read and understand and love God's Word and that they're finding this resource to be helpful to them,” Cobble said.
"My prayer when I started was that 300 people would do it with me," she added. "I mean, Ephesians 3:20 'exceedingly more than you can ask or hope' re-imagined."
Nowadays, her podcast has reached listeners in at least 200 countries.
"It's just this word of mouth, and obviously the Spirit of God is doing something in those communities that people are finding joy in the Word of God, and they can't stop talking about it."
In addition to her podcast, Cobble published the book, “The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible,” in 2020.
Image credit: Taraleighcobble / Instagram
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.