As someone who spends hours each week writing Sunday School lessons and/or devotionals and blog posts, it probably won’t surprise you that I’m pretty passionate about the importance of daily Bible study. I don’t personally look at it as a spiritual discipline or a Christian duty, though it is both. To me, it’s more a privilege and a joy, and I don’t understand why a person, especially a person claiming to be a Christian and to know the Lord, would ever neglect it.
But, that’s the mindset of someone who’s been studying the Bible faithfully from a pretty young age and the mindset of someone who’s calling is intricately connected to Bible study. It’s not the mindset of someone who struggles with Bible study. And, I would imagine someone who struggles with Bible study probably gets tired of hearing, “Read your Bible every day!” “Study your Bible!” “Don’t neglect your morning Bible study!” Now, to be clear, I am not suggesting churches, pastors, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, and so forth should stop encouraging Bible study. Not at all! But, I do think we often do a lot of telling people to read and study their Bible and perhaps not enough instructing them on how to study the Bible or explaining why they should study the Bible. So, let’s dig into the how and why a little bit (or maybe more than a little bit because it’s a topic I’m passionate about, so I’ll probably get wordy).
How to study the Bible
1. By itself
I’ve already mentioned that I write Sunday School literature and devotionals, and I’ve also written a couple of Bible study guides. So, I’m certainly not opposed to quality tools and study helps. (In fact, I can hook you up with some if you need them.) That said, there is no substitution for just digging into the Word itself. Only the Bible is divinely inspired. Only the Bible itself is part of God’s special revelation of Himself to mankind. So, we have to move beyond reading a few verses and a short accompanying devotional and counting that as Bible study. We have to really read the Word. Reading devotionals, commentaries, and/or books on theology needs to be in addition to and never in place of the Word itself.
2. Read and reread
Writing Sunday School literature has taught me the beauty of reading and rereading the Word. For a typical lesson, I’ll read through the section of text the lesson is taken from first before I do anything else. Then, I’ll read it again and start developing an outline. Then, I’ll read through it again to write out a summary and some questions for the lesson. Then, I’ll read through it again working on application points. Needless to say, there’s a lot of reading and rereading. And, often with that reading and rereading, the outline and the lesson changes. I notice things that didn’t stand out on that first read through, or I understand some of the verses a bit better from looking at them repeatedly and make some adjustments to the focus of the lesson. Reading a chapter of the Bible is great. I would never discourage that. But, if we want to really understand what we read and glean as much as we can from the chapter, then we probably need to do a little reading and rereading.
3. Slowly
This is a big one and one that’s hard for us with our crazy busy lifestyles where we all have to-do lists a million miles long and a thousand places to be, but we can’t give ourselves five minutes and think we’re going to have quality Bible study. When we sit down to study God’s Word, we need to take our time and go slowly. We don’t need to race through chapters and books. We need to spend real time in each passage we look at. We need to allow time for looking at the surrounding context so that we are more likely to properly interpret the passage we’re studying. I love good mystery and/or suspense novels, and especially if they’re good, I usually devour them pretty quickly because I want the mystery solved and the suspense to be over. I want to have all the answers. But, studying the Bible requires careful, focused reading. It’s not like speed-reading through a page-turner.
4. With paper and pen
At the risk of sounding boastful, I was a really good student in school. I was valedictorian of my high school class and graduated college in three years summa cum laude. (I thought it was going to lead to success in life… Now, I define success vastly differently and think all that effort was mostly a waste, but that’s neither here nor there.) A big part of the reason I was able to do so well in school is because I was an excellent notetaker, and it helped with recalling information for exams. Similarly, if we’ll study the Bible with paper and pen handy and jot down things that stand out to us and connections the Lord allows us to see as we study, we’ll be more likely to remember what we studied. It will be more likely to come to our mind when we need it because we find ourselves in a battle with temptation. Is it absolutely necessary to take notes while studying the Bible? No. Is it a good and helpful practice? Yes.
5. Prayerfully
Prayer and Bible study are both vital to our spiritual life and well-being, and though we certainly shouldn’t only pray while we’re studying God’s Word, we definitely need to pray while studying God’s Word.
A. Pray for understanding
If you’ve read the Bible very much at all, you know that there are some passages that are difficult to understand. And, going slow and reading and rereading will certainly help us with difficult passages, but we also need to pray for understanding. We need to pray for God to help us see what we’re not seeing and grasp what we’re not grasping. Often, He will. Other times, He may give us peace about not understanding or lead us to reflect on it for a time and then circle back to it. He will certainly hear and be pleased with our prayer for understanding and answer in His way and His time.
B. Praise
As we really study the Bible, we will be amazed again and again at God’s goodness, at His power, at the depth of His love, at His abundant mercy and grace, and the list goes on and on and on. When that happens, we just need to pause and praise. We need to express our awe and wonder and adoration for our Lord because He is so deserving.
C. Repent
Sometimes reading and studying the Bible is uplifting and encouraging. It makes us feel joyful and at peace. Other times, God’s Word cuts us to the quick. Other times, studying His Word makes us see our sins and see how much room we still have to grow in sanctification. It makes us feel desperately wicked. And, we need to pray then too. We need to repent. We need to confess our sins and pray for strength overcoming them. Repentance is part of studying the Word too.
D. Give thanks
Finally, we need to pray prayers of thanksgiving while we’re studying God’s Word. We need to be thankful simply for the gift that is His Word. We need to be thankful when He gives us the understanding we were seeking. We need to be thankful when He uses His Word to bring us peace and joy. We need to be thankful when He uses His Word to correct us and challenge us, realizing that’s an outpouring of His love. We always need to be thankful for how God speaks to us through His Word.
Why to study the Bible
After several pointers on how to study the Bible, let’s look at some really important reasons to study the Bible.
1. To hear God speak
I think we all often find ourselves longing to hear God speak, and the great news is we can every time we open His Word. Second Timothy 3:16 begins, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” Yes, the Bible was written by multiple servants of the Lord over many years, but every word of it is from the Lord. When we read and study it, we are blessed to hear God speak, and that should make us overjoyed to open our Bible every single day.
2. To be changed
We should also read the Bible to be changed by it. As we faithfully study God’s Word, we will grow in wisdom and in the fruits of the Spirit. We will grow stronger in our faith because we’ll know God better and therefore trust Him more. Also, as mentioned when I talked about praying prayers of repentance while studying God’s Word, we’ll see things in our lives that aren’t pleasing to the Lord and be convicted to do more putting off of the old man and putting on the new. Bible study will change us and in the best ways.
3. To avoid certain defeat
In Ephesians 6:11, we are instructed to put on the whole armor of God, and a few verses later, Paul, by God’s inspiration, went over that armor, and in doing so, he only mentioned one weapon–the sword of the Spirit, identified as the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). All the other armor is defensive. It’s for our protection. The sword, the Word, is our only means of attack. Here’s the deal. I think we can all agree we’re engaged in spiritual warfare. Paul spelled that out plainly in Ephesians 6:12, which reads, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” And, if all we have is protective gear, then we might be able to sustain some blows, but defeat is still certain. There is no way to advance or gain ground. There is no hope of victory. You cannot wage war without a weapon. Thus, we should study the Bible because defeat is certain if we don’t.
For the Journey Literature 