Do you ever sit down with your bible and think, ok what do I do now? How do I study this? Where do I even start? I want to give you a few simple steps to get the most of studying your Bible. In hopes that you can experience the transforming presence and love of God.
1. Chose a passage or book of scripture to start with. This can be anything that sparks your interest. I love starting with the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) Or maybe the book of James or the Psalms. Those are great places to start. Ask God to reveal himself to you through his word.
2. Read the entire chapter through in one sitting (if you want to read the book – great! But you don’t have to). Even though you may only focus in on a verse or two, try and read the whole chapter first. Next, read the passage you’re wanting to focus on out loud two or three times to get comfortable with it. This might be only 1-3 verses.
Here is where it get’s exciting!
Let’s start asking some questions!
3. When we start studying the Bible we want to investigate a few things by asking questions! First, we want to discover what kind of literature we’re reading? This will help you to think about the following questions. Below is a chart to help you decipher. I also highly recommend checking out the videos from The Bible Project to learn more about the books of Bible! They’re amazing!! CLICK HERE for those!
4. Who was this text was originally written to? Was it a group of people, if so, who? Was it a crowd of non-believers? Jews or new christians? These are just examples of the questions you can ask yourself about the passage your studying.
5. What did the original hearers of this passage hear when these words were first spoken to them? If it was Law did they use it to guide their actions? If it was Gospel, was it used to draw hearts to Christ?
6. What does this tell me about God? What character qualities of God can I list out from this passage? Go through your text again, highlight any possible characteristics you can learn about God from it? Does is show he is a promise keeper, giver of peace? Does it show He loves and cares about our hearts?
Application
Application is the last step. Often times we want to make this the first step, but really – it should be done lastly. It’s important now to focus on your own life. Asking yourself Is there an opportunity to apply this to my life? How is it applicable to ME personally? (Not how is it applicable to your mom, sister, friend down the street – but YOU). What is God telling YOU through this passage.
If this seems hard, or maybe too easy, I encourage you to sit with God and ask him to reveal his word to you. The Bible is living and God’s word is true – my prayer is you take the time to marinate in these questions as you grow deeper in your study of the bible and in your faith.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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To learn more about what the Bible and God say about your identity, head to this post HERE.
To get started in your journey to praying for your children Check out this post HERE.
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