6 Tips for Studying the Bible
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Summertime was always the hardest for me, when it came to devotions and studying the Bible.
School was out, we were on vacation, and the warm weather both made me want to sleep longer and begged me to go outside and just enjoy nature.
I think vacation time is the easiest time to let our devotional time slip, because our routine is all mixed up, we want to sleep in, and we’re eager to get out and have fun.
But making God a priority, even on vacation, is so important to our spiritual lives.
Here are 6 tips I’ve learned to making Bible study fun, exciting, fresh and new!
6 Tips for Studying the Bible
1. Bible Journaling
I don’t think it’s news to anyone who knows me that I love to write.
Writing helps me process my thoughts and feelings. Often times while I’m writing, I’ll get fresh insight into God’s Word.
I like to take a notebook with me and write down verses, thoughts, and even what I’ve researched out about the passage.
I also like to write down my thoughts about what I’ve read – which sometimes turn into articles later on.
Some people like to do art journaling.
Darlene at Time Warp Wife has recently begun to do art journaling in her Bible. Also, Worshipful Living wrote about it as well.
You can get special Bibles with wide margins for either written journaling or art journaling.
2. Color coding
Courtney at Women Living Well encourages color coding your Bible according to various topics.
This not only makes your Bible look pretty, it forces you to focus on what you’re reading.
Does that sound funny?
But how many times have we read entire chapters without ever really comprehending what we’ve read.
Color coding your Bible helps you to stay focused on the passage, plus, when you go back to researched topics, such as blessings or the words of Jesus, it is easy to find because you just look for a certain color!
You can get excellent pens that don’t bleed, especially for color coding!
3. Ask questions
Ask yourself: Who, when, where why and how.
Who is this passage talking about?
When did it take place?
Where doe sit take place?
Why was this passage written?
How does it apply to my life today? Mandy from Worshipful Living goes into depth about these questions in her post at Women Living Well.
4. SOAK
What is SOAK, you ask? Simply this:
S – write out the scripture
O – write out your observation about what you just read
A – write out how you can apply this scripture to your life right now
K – kneel in prayer. Write out a prayer to the Lord regarding the scripture you just read.
This is an excellent way to study God’s Word when you’re doing only a handful of verses at a time, or slowly working through one book.
5. Context
Keep scripture in context.
Friends, this is so important if we are to remain theologically sound. Many strange cults and false prophets have arisen because of a few verses that were taken out of context.
The best way to keep scripture in context is to read whole books from start to finish.
When focusing on a particular verse or passage, look at what comes before and after it, then look at what Scripture a whole has to say about that topic.
To help you do that, you can start my Read Through the Bible in 365 Days Bible Reading Challenge and receive a new workbook in your email each month!
6. Research
There are many excellent tools, theologians, and preachers who have contributed many volumes that we can use to research scripture.
J. Vernon McGee, the Strongs Concordance, Matthew Henry and more.
You can find these resources and more at Blue Letter Bible – a free online resource with multiple translations of the Bible.
Start studying the Bible today with my monthly Read Through the Bible in 365 Days Bible Reading Challenge!
Each month you will receive a new workbook in your inbox that will help you study God’s Word and take your quiet time to a whole new level!
To start receiving these Reading Challenge workbooks in your email each month, simply sign up below!
NKJV Journaling Bible®
Accu-Gel Bible Highlighter Study Kit (Pack of 6)The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the BibleStrong’s Concise Concordance And Vine’s Concise Dictionary Of The Bible Two Bible Reference Classics In One Handy VolumeNKJV, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, Hardcover: Kingdom Equipping Through the Power of the WordMatthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Super Value Series)
I don’t have a link up list and I haven’t been active on my own little blog in an embarrassingly long time, but I LOVED THIS! I know that once a person just commits to the development of reading the Bible, it becomes such a necessary part of the day, that NOT doing it causes the entire day to feel… Sideways.
I also love to write and have tons of notebooks from journaling most of my life. It runs in my family, though. My Daddy wrote gospel music for most all his life. Here could be at someone’s house and hear something said that sparked his talent, flip over an old grocery receipt and write out most of the song right there. He wrote the song “Teardrops” that a group called Tony Gore and the Majesty sing. They did a great job and didn’t change or alter it in any way, but I heard Daddy sing it first, so everything else sounded poor in comparison. He passed away in ’09 and I still miss him every time I breathe. Every page of my Bible reminds me of a lesson he taught me or a song he sang. Or even research projects we would work on way late at night, just Jesus, Daddy, and me.
Adding memories to your Bible time can make it feel more like your spending time with family, I love that part.
Could you suggest some resources to help me with studying spiritual warfare? I’m having a hard time right now and I’m pretty sure if my family isn’t in some sort of battle, we are definitely about to be.
Hello I loved your post! I’ve been meaning to begin studying my Bible more thoroughly but have had trouble with the “studying” part. I loved the tips though and will be using them from now on! I dropped on over from the Mom 2 Mom link up party.
I hope you’ve found them helpful.
Hi, I love this! Please link up with Literacy Musing Mondays. I know my readers will benefit from it too. Here is the url for this week’s linkup: http://www.maryanderingcreatively.com/literacy-musing-mondays-week-20/
I will add this link up to my list. Thank you.