I receive a number of emails from you all, sharing your main spiritual challenge and one that rises to the top is….How do I read the Bible so that I can grow?
It’s a great question!
Firstly, it’s good to stop, step back and revisit the why. Why do you read your Bible?
What is the point of reading a book that was written by different authors over a large time period? Is it still relevant now?
This is what it comes down to for me….I believe the Bible is the word of God. The Holy Spirit inspired the authors to sit down and write books, letters, history and eye witness accounts so that we might believe in Jesus and grow in our relationship with the Father.
I believe that God’s word feeds our soul (mind, will and emotions) and spirit.
We wouldn’t live very long if we didn’t feed our physical body would we? and it is the same with our soul and spirit.
God is all for growth. He created nature to start small and grow. And it is the same for spiritual matters.
I can tell the difference in my mental mindset, my emotional stability and my decision making when I spend time daily in God’s word.
The Word of God is your FOOD.
It’s strengthening meat (Psalm 119:28)
It’s healthy (Proverbs 16:24)
It’s cleansing water (Ephesians 5:26) .
It’s bears fruit (Mark 4:20).
It’s super sweet (Psalm 19:10) .
And it needs to be taken on a regular basis.
So here are some ideas on how to partake of God’s Word…
1. Slowly
“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:19 ESV
Be a Mary (mother of Jesus) and take time to ponder the Word prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to reveal what He wants you to know, do or say.
I take one verse, write it in my journal then ponder each word, the phrase, the surrounding verses and allow God to speak through His Word. I might look up the original meaning of a word in Hebrew or Greek (see free resources below) to discover more insight. I also find myself praying back the verse as it renews my mind.
This may take time. Weeks even.
There is no hurry.
I am not trying to finish a chapter or book.
I am allowing God’s word to become a part of my life.
His Words are life.
2. Quickly
Rachel, isn’t quickly contradicting reading slowly?
What I mean by quickly is to read the Bible like an overview.
Knowing the overall context of the entire Bible is extremely helpful in interpreting specific passages.
It is good and advisable to recognize how each part of the Bible relates to each other with Jesus being the central premise.
So you might spend time each month reading through entire books of the Bible to gain an overview. It seems to be easy to read a fiction book or the daily newspaper for a couple of hours each week but for some reason we don’t spend time just reading large portions of the Word.
A great resource to help is Dr Chuck Missler’s book “Learn the Bible in 24 Hours”.
Here are 24 one hour videos FREE with Chuck Missler going through the Bible.
3. In Depth Study
To get to the meat of the Word, I highly recommend taking part in either a personal Bible Study of a book of the Bible or in a group setting.
I personally love to use the Precept materials and in particularly their Precept Upon Precept resources. (see below for links)
A helpful book for Inductive Bible Study is” How to Study Your Bible: Discover the Life- Changing Approach to God’s Word” by Kay Arthur, David Arthur and Pete De Lacy.
4. Spend a Month in Proverbs
The cool thing about the book of Proverbs is its 31 chapters – one chapter per day for a month.
Read a chapter daily and pick one verse to write in your journal or on a card and take a couple of seconds regularly throughout the day to reread the proverb.
Ask God to show you how to put that proverb into action that day.
When I did this, I was amazed at how relevant the book of proverbs is for 21st century living. Full of wisdom.
5. Pick a Topic
Pick an area in your life where you know needs more of God’s wisdom and input.
What needs to change?
What would you like to grow in?
Is it an attitude like thanksgiving or joy?
Or is it an area of your life like finances, healing or hospitality?
Use the tools listed below and search your topic, note down or print out the verses and spend some time each day prayerfully reading.
Gather any revelations from God or things that you learn into your journal.
How does this new information need to be incorporated into your daily life?
The object of reading and studying the Word is to be transformed by the renewing of you mind so that you will know God’s will.
Word of Warning in These Last Days
It is becoming increasingly vital that every Christian be in God’s Word regularly – discovering truth for themselves in these last days. Not leaving it up to their pastor, church, small group leader or the internet to feed their spirits and souls.
We need to be digging into the Word ourselves.
We need to be checking what we receive from others with the Word of God.
It is so easy to just put our trust in people and believe that what they are teaching or preaching is true.
Check all teaching out for yourself.
I see error becoming rampant in our churches and it has been left unchecked because the people are not checking with the Word of God for themselves.
You could be believing something that isn’t even of God and doesn’t appear in Scripture. How would you know if you weren’t personally reading the Bible for yourself?
“Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11 ESV
How do you read the Word?
FEEDBACK – I would love to know how God speaks to you through His Word -comment below…
Keep leaning into Him!
Rachel Larkin
My Bible Tools & Resources:
My Resources page on my website has some awesome tools that I use regularly – check it out here https://www.rachellarkin.com/resources/
Specifically I use these tools every week:
- https://www.blueletterbible.org/ – search any word to find a specific Bible verse, then you can drill down into the Greek and Hebrew word meanings. I love to also use this tool for checking out what the Bible says on a particular topic – type in say “worship” and a list of verse that mention worship will be shown.
- The Bible App – awesome app for your phone where you can read the Bible in different translations or find a devotional plan to read daily with reminders.
- If I am using my desktop PC I really like to use https://www.biblegateway.com/ to check out other translations and to search topics.
- Precepts Ministries – if you live in NZ – https://precept.org.nz/ or in the USA – https://www.precept.org/ – join a group near you or find an online class.
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