The woman behind a well-known yearly Bible reading podcast that recently reached the number one spot on Apple Podcasts said she never dreamed it would reach millions of listeners since its launch in 2019. Tara-Leigh Cobble, host of “The Bible Recap,” told Fox News Digital, “I just couldn’t believe it. I was so grateful. Never would have imagined it. Because of my prayer five years ago was that 300 people would listen.”
She continued, “Never did I imagine the number one spot in Christian podcasts, much less all podcasts. It’s one of those things when we talk about God, who does exceedingly more than all we can ask or think or imagine, that verse comes to mind.” Cobble launched The Bible Recap in 2019 with “a very small dream” to reach just 300 listeners. The next morning, she was floored to open her email and see 300 messages from people in the U.S. and around the world.
Cobble explained, “I was blown away. I had no idea. I was so encouraged by the fact that so many people wanted to read the Bible.” Since then, her podcast has grown from a one-woman show in her apartment to a full team of people. Cobble has written books and study guides to accompany the show in the past four years, and the podcast has earned over 331 million downloads.
She said, “It has grown organically. We don’t buy advertising; we don’t buy billboards. It’s just word of mouth, and we’re thrilled about that.” Cobble shared how she was inspired to start The Bible Recap because of her struggles reading Scripture. She said, “I started this project because I had spent much of my life trying and failing at reading through the Bible. And the one time that I finally succeeded it was because a pastor friend who had read through the Bible several times offered to answer my questions along the way.”
As she fell more in love with reading the Bible each year, she wanted to help others have the same experience. Cobble said, “That was my goal. I didn’t just want people to read it. I wanted them to understand it. I wanted them to love it.” In typically less than ten minutes a day, Cobble guides listeners in the podcast through the daily reading in a conversational way. Despite this being her 16th time reading the whole Bible, she said she’s still learning new things every year.
Along the way, she’s learned what to do and what not to do when reading the Bible. Her number one tip to anyone reading the Bible is to make God the focus. She suggests, “Don’t look for yourself. Don’t look for your to-do list. Don’t look for your application points. Look for God, the character of God, what He loves, what He hates, what motivates him to do what He does, look for God.”