It is not enough to casually read the Bible. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us so we don't wrest the Scriptures to our own destruction. Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 368.

Full text of the devotional: “Search the Scriptures,” December 20

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11.

It is of little advantage to skim over the surface of the Scriptures. If we would understand fully the words of Christ, thought must be brought into the searching of the Scriptures. We should open the Scriptures with great reverence, and not in a slothful, lazy manner. The word of Christ is spirit and life to the receiver. The words of Christ to the Pharisees were, “[Ye] search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). They were searching the Scriptures for evidence of Christ’s appearing, gathering up every evidence in regard to the manner in which they supposed He would come, while Christ was in their midst, and they did not discern Him by the use of faith...

In this our day, as in Christ’s day, there will be a misreading and misinterpreting of the Scriptures. If the Jews had studied the Scriptures with earnest, prayerful, humble hearts, their searching would have been rewarded with a true knowledge of the time, and not only the time, but also the manner of Christ’s first appearing. They would not have ascribed the glories of the second appearing of Christ to His first advent. They had the testimony of Daniel; they had the testimony of Isaiah and other prophets; they had the teaching of Moses; and here was Christ Himself in their midst, and still they were searching the Scriptures for evidence in regard to His coming. They were doing to Christ, at the same time, the very things that it had been prophesied they would do. They were so blinded that they knew not the time of His visitation, or what they were doing. Thus they were fulfilling the Scripture.

Many are doing the same thing today... because they have not had experience in the testing message comprehended in the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There are those who are searching the Scriptures for proof that these messages are still in the future. They gather together the truthfulness of the messages, but they fail to give them their proper place in prophetic history. Therefore such are in danger of misleading the people in regard to locating the messages. They do not see and understand the time of the end, or when to locate the messages... The watchman is to know the time of the night. Everything is now clothed with a solemnity that all who believe the truth should feel and sense... All the little things of life are but a mote now. Those that pertain to eternity are of great consequence.—Manuscript 41a, December 20, 1896, untitled manuscript.