Introduction
- Text: Psa. 19:7-11.
- Most of us would agree that Bible study is important — we simply don’t study the Bible as much as we ought to.
- But even when we do study, we often fail to get all that we should from the text.
- Perhaps, as busy people, we underestimate the need for preparation.
- What about you? If you’ve increased the “quantity” of your Bible study, but haven’t seen good results, perhaps you need to work on the “quality” of your study.
- There is much to be said for learning how to study the Bible.
- Here are ten suggestions that will help you get more out of the time you spend studying God’s word.
I. Ten Suggestions
- Read larger sections.
- We tend to get bogged down in the details of Bible study to such an extent that we lose the bigger picture.
- There is much to be gained from backing up and reading larger portions of the Bible at one time.
- Whenever possible, we need to read an entire book at one sitting, especially the letters in the NT which were meant to be read just as we today read a letter that we receive from a friend.
- Use multiple translations.
- Regardless of which translation you use, get several of the better translations and compare these as you study.
- With translations, there is safety in numbers– what is unclear in one translation is often clear in another.
- Look up unfamiliar words.
- It’s amazing how many people will come across words they don’t know in the Bible and never make any effort to find out what they mean.
- Keep an English dictionary and a Bible dictionary handy, and use them every time you need to.
- God’s word is too important not to know what the words mean.
- Outline the books.
- You don’t have to do the kind of detailed outlines your teachers made you do in school.
- Just learn to see the major sections of each book and how they fit together.
- Study to learn more than what the text does NOT say.
- We do need to be able to refute false doctrine — but we need to know more than what the text does not say.
- The question is: what does it say?
- And especially, what does it say to me? What is God saying that I myself need to hear?
- Engage all three parts of the mind: INTELLECT, EMOTIONS, and WILL.
- God gave us all three parts of our mind, and we need to use them all.
- When you study, bring your emotions and your will to the aid of your intellect.
- Having learned intellectually what God says, feel emotionally as you ought to feel about it and then use you will to do what you ought to do about it!
- Look for three things: INFORMATION, INTERPRETATION, and APPLICATION.
- When we study, we need to get the “information” (what it says) and the “interpretation” (what it means).
- But we should also look for “application” (how we can use what we’ve learned).
- Bathe your study in prayer.
- Prayer is the No. 1 thing we can do to help ourselves in any endeavor, including Bible study.
- Without a prayerful attitude, Bible study can actually be dangerous.
- So pray before you study, while you study, and after you study.
- Be patient.
- Much of what we need to learn takes time.
- We must be willing to go over the text again and again and again. Patient repetition, perhaps stretching over many years, is what will yield substantial results.
- Don’t give up. Just go over the text carefully, put it away, and then go over it again later.
- Keep doing this for the rest of your life.
- Be honest and courageous.
- When we study God’s word, we must strive to lay aside our preferences and preconceived ideas, and be willing to learn whatever the text actually says – 1 Sam. 3:10.
- And having done that, we then need to have the courage to do what we should about it.
Conclusion
- The ability to get quality results in Bible study is not an inborn trait — it is something that can be learned.
- Most of us have a lot to learn about even the simplest aspects of searching the Scriptures — we’re hardly more than children in our study skills.
- And if you think you’ve advanced to the point where you don’t need these tips, just ask yourself how often you really apply these to your own study.
- Let’s all do better about our Bible study — which of these ten tips can you make the best use of?
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com