Reading and Studying God’s Word

by patsy norwood (c) 2003 - 2009 ~ All Rights Reserved

The Bible is not only God’s Word, it is also our instruction manual. By reading and studying our instruction manual, we will learn how to live our lives as God would have us to. This sounds fairly simple on the surface, but let me assure you that it will take time and effort. Gleaning from God’s word is not as quick and easy as driving up to a fast food restaurant and ordering a burger. We must spend time studying and meditating in It.

A question I often hear is “how do you study?” Believe it or not this is not a silly question and I’m going to share with you some things I have done and some things that I have had recommended to me.

Copy verses or a book of the Bible. You’ll be surprised how much one can learn from simple copying.

Word Study. The purpose of doing a word study is to understand the meaning of a word/words in the context of what we are reading. Sometimes this is crucial to get the proper meaning and interpretation of what we are studying. You will need a good concordance and a Bible dictionary for this.

Outline a book of the Bible. I dare you to do this. You will truly be blessed by what you learn.

Dissecting a book, chapter, or passage from the Bible. Ask the who, what, when, why, where, and how questions.

Memorize a passage. My memory is not what it used to be so I need help when it comes to memorizing. One thing that helps me is to write the passage over and over again. Little by little I can write the complete passage without having to peek in the Bible for help.

Character Study. Pick out one person from the Bible and write down everything you learn about him/her from the Scriptures. Be very observant of what the Bible does and does not say about this person.

Topical Study. Choose a topic and look up every passage on the subject. When you put all your information together you may be surprised at what you learn.

Practical Application. After you’ve finished your reading ask yourself these questions, “What does this mean for my life and how can I apply it to my life?” This one is a ‘biggie’, without the application, what we read is just a story.

Prepare to Teach A Lesson. This will definitely send you searching and studying the Bible. The teacher is most certainly the one who learns the most from this method.

Purchase a prepared study. There are several good ‘fill in the blank’ Bible study books on the market that require you to get in your Bible and search out the correct answer.

Object Studies. Select objects found in the Bible and do a study on them. Find out how they were used during Biblical times and why. You’ll be surprised how much insight this will give you.
Geographical/Area Studies. Knowing the ‘lay of the land” and it’s surrounding area helps us to better understand some of the things we read in God’s word so pick an area, a body of water, a mountain, etc and find out all you can about it.

O. K. now you’ve made the commitment to spend more time in God’s Word and in your Christian walk, but life seems to get in the way. You start each day with good intentions, but before you know it the day is over and you haven’t even opened your Bible, much less thought about your Christian walk. You fall into bed determined to do better tomorrow. Tomorrow is a repeat of the day before and before long several days have gone by. The only time you have touched your Bible is when you picked it up to take to church with you. Discouragement begins to set in and your commitment seems like an impossible task. What is a person to do? Ladies, we cannot give up, we must persevere! Giving up is what Satan wants us to do. We must beat him at his own game and come up with ways to get our “spiritual food” on a daily basis.

Here again I have some ideas....

Since most of us spend a large amount of time in our automobiles, get your hands on some tapes/CD's of sermons, or lessons and listen to them while you travel.

If you are fortunate enough not to have to spend a lot of time traveling you can apply the above concept to your activities at home, instead of having the TV on put in one of these tapes or CD's. You’ll be surprised how much more quickly housework or for that matter any task goes when you have a song in your heart or are listening to a meaningful sermon or lesson.

How about all the time you spend waiting in doctor’s offices or at children’s activities, take advantage of this “down time” to give yourself some “spiritual food” by reading your Bible, an inspirational book or magazine.

For those that exercise on a regular basis, put a tape in a portable cassette player, strap it on and listen to it as you exercise. You will not only be giving your body a workout, but you will also be feeding your soul as well.

Hebrew 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Not only will we be encouraged from worshiping and studying with others, but we will also be with others who are trying to “persevere in the Lord.” There is strength in numbers!

I don’t know about your house, but at my house the bathrooms are great places to have reading material. This would be a good place for those Bibles, inspirational books and magazines we talked about earlier.

Speaking of the bathroom, what about the bath or shower? This is a really good place for praying sessions and/or times of just singing unto the Lord while we are cleaning our bodies.

I would be remiss if I did not include here something about our desire to find time for our ‘spiritual food.’ Half the battle is “wanting” to find a way to spend time learning of God. If we do not have the desire to know God it does not matter how many ideas are presented to us. Everything takes effort, even knowing God. The old adage “where there is a will, there is a way” certainly applies here. Ladies, we must “seize the moment” when it comes to getting our “spiritual food.” We must put some thought into it and if necessary, get creative. We must not let Satan rob us of the opportunity to feed our soul spiritually and to learn of God.

Just as those who work outside the home have to get up and go to work in order to earn a paycheck, and just as we have to continually work in our homes in order to maintain some sort of order, and just as we have to make our husbands a priority in order to have good marriages, we have to spend time in God’s word in order to learn of Him and reap His blessings.

When we put ‘nothing’ out that’s exactly what we get in return. Zero efforts equals zero results, and in the case of studying God’s word zero results can lead to eternal consequences.