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First of all, pray!
First of all, pray!
The first step in Bible study, is just pray. Simple, but this is the foundation of all relationship. In order to have a relationship with someone, you have to talk to them. That is all prayer is.... talking to God. Conversing with Him just like you would your best friend, or spouse. Telling Him about the details of your day, how you feel about something, asking questions, asking for wisdom. Begin Bible study with asking God to show you a direction to go in your study. Ask God what scriptures He wants to speak to you about. Ask Him to help you understand more about Him - His character, what He loves and what He hates. Prayer is where we pour our heart out to Him, and studying His word is how He speaks to us.
Create a habit of reading the Word
Create a habit of reading the Word
One of the easiest ways I have found to make reading my Bible a habit is to follow along with The Bible Recap plan by Tara Leigh Cobble. This is a 365 day reading plan that follows the story as it was written, in chronological order. I use this plan in the YouVersion Bible App to keep up daily and a cool little secret, is that YouVersion will read the scriptures to you so you don't have to pronounce all of those weird names! The daily reading will be followed up by a short commentary recap of the readings for the day, targeted at looking for the heart of God and his character all throughout scripture. This reading plan is wonderful to have a place to start!
Of course there are many ways to study your Bible. You can pick a topic and see what the Bible has to say about it. You can pick one book at a time and do a deep dive into it. You can find many studies on the YouVersion App or head to your local Christian Bookstore to find more. The bottom line is simply to open your Bible and read it!
Research the meaning of words
Research the meaning of words
When studying the Bible, there are oftentimes we miss the true meaning or depth of a passage by not fully understanding the root of the word or its definition. I love to use Blue Letter Bible to research and learn the root meanings of words in the original language of Hebrew (Old Testament ) or Greek (New testament).
You can also benefit from simply having a good dictionary handy. I like to use this one, since it seems to pull connections from Scripture when appropriate. Knowing the meaning of a word used in a scripture will oftentimes help us to understand the greater picture of its meaning and how we can apply it to our lives.
Taking up this practice for myself has really helped me to understand more about scripture and how it is suppose to be applied to my life. There are many words that lost the weight of their meaning when they were translated to English. In order for us to understand the application of scripture, we have to understand the meaning of it first. This becomes so much easier when we not only understand the word in our language and what it actually means, but to understand the full implication of the word in the original language will significantly help us to understand how God intends for it to be applied.
As I understand better the language and how words were used, I can understand better how the word can be applied to my life. After all, that is the entire point of studying the Bible. Jesus said, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." In order to abide in His word, we have to understand it. Oftentimes that is simply knowing what the word mean.
Grab a good Bible Commentary
Grab a good Bible Commentary
Studying the Bible can be difficult sometimes - we don't know the culture, we may not understand the metaphors or the applications of parables or have knowledge of the historical happenings of the time. This is where a good Bible Commentary comes in handy. These are books written by those who have studied scripture, culture and history in depth to understand the meaning and application of scripture.
My favorite one to use for a whole Bible Commentary, meaning that it covers both Old and New Testament, is the Tony Evans Bile Commentary. He does a really great job of breaking the meanings and applications of scripture down in a way that we can apply God's kingdom principles to our lives.
For a more concise commentary on just the New Testament, I like to use the New Testament in its World by N.T. Wright. This commentary focus just on the New Testament and the culture, history and applications of scripture to the New Covenant era of history.
I often used these two books to understand more about the culture of the time the Bible was written, or to understand the deeper meanings held in particular descriptions in scripture. One of the first rules of understanding and interpreting the Bible is to understand that we cannot make scripture mean to us, what it never meant to them. Stop and read that last sentence slowly. Scripture cannot be altered to mean what we want it to mean today. We have to understand what the original reader would have known so that we can properly interpret and apply scripture to our lives. Each of these commentaries I have mentioned here do a great job of looking at the historical context and pulling out the meanings of scripture based on that context.
Write about it
Write about it
Some of us, are not the greatest at journaling or writing down our thoughts. This is honestly an area I plan to grow in this year. Journaling or verse mapping can turn out to be a wonderful resource to look back on later to see how God has transformed your life. Journaling can help you to let out the hurt, identify toxic thoughts and even track answered prayers in your life. You can jot down the thoughts you have each day from your study, your prayers, the things you learned about God during that study or the frustrations you are having, pouring them out to God.
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