Listen to “Basics of Life Changing Bible Study” from Prepare to Answer on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/prepare-to-answer/episodes/Basics-of-Life-Changing-Bible-Study-e9jnms/Basics-of-Life-Changing-Bible-Study-a16fc85
See show notes below.
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1) Visualise
Bible Study is simply listening to God, we should therefore visualise it as a conversation with God, one in which we listen. I like to think about Mary in Luke 10, who sat at the feet of Jesus. This is essentially what we are doing when we open the Word each day.
2) Plan
Little happens in life without a plan, at least consistently anyway. We should have a clear idea of when we will open the Word. This may involve sacrifice e.g. getting to bed early, getting up early.
3) Pray
We should pray before we start our study of the Word. Pray that God will help remove other distracting thoughts and that we will see wonderful things in his Word.
4) Search
A cursory look at the Word will never cut it. We should never read to just get it done, but we can all fall into this. We should aim to dig deep and examine God’s Word and having ours hearts laid bear before us.
5) Listen
When reading God’s Word we are active listeners and it should become more obvious what God wants to say to us. I personally would advise reading until we hear what God is saying to us, rather than just giving up.
6) Apply
We must watch out for ticking boxes and not applying what we read. James warns against deceiving ourselves like this (James 1). We should ask questions such as; What does this mean to me? What do I need to change/start doing? What do I need to think about more? Etc.
7) Mediatate
It’s so critical that we don’t walk away and forget what God said to us. We can do this by bringing the Word with us and this can be achieved by meditating on God’s Word.