#faithspring

[walkswithmyfather]

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” —James 1:22‭-‬25 (NLT)

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” —Matthew 24:35 (NIV)

“But Jesus said, “The people who hear the teaching of God and obey it—they are the ones who have God’s blessing.” —Luke 11:28 (ERV)

“But He said, “On the contrary, blessed (happy, favored by God) are those who hear the word of God and continually observe it.” —Luke 11:28 (AMP)

“How To Study The Bible” (Foundations) Devotional By Faithspring.

Day 5 - “Great Bible Study is Transformative:”

“Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.” – Theodore Roethke

“Imagine walking into a doctor’s office because you’re feeling sick but instead of the thermometer being used the way it’s supposed to be (by placing it in your mouth, ear, or on your forehead), it is placed in your hand. Then after a few seconds, the nurse picks it up tells you your temperature looks fine.

How would you respond? Of course it looks fine, you didn't use it the right way.

In that setting, used in that way, the best the thermometer could do was read the temperature of the room around it. It’s not that the thermometer itself was broken or ineffective. It just wasn’t being used correctly.

In the same way, when we keep the Bible at arm’s length we miss out on the profound power, truth, and life waiting to be accessed. The Bible is one of the primary ways God chose to reveal himself to us. If we want to have, be, and do everything God intended it all starts with approaching the Bible with the right tools and intentions in place.

For my own Christian walk, these are the seven pillars of effective (and transformative) Bible study:

Understanding context.

Building a habit.

Practicing memorization.

Using the right tools.

Learning in community.

Integrating prayer.

Pursuing vulnerability.

Your own walk may incorporate more, but certainly no less than these seven. They have helped me grow beyond what I thought possible and I believe they can do the same for you.

I hope and pray that you learn to love God’s Word with a ferocious passion. And finally, that it will truly become a lamp unto your feet and a light upon your path.”

[walkswithmyfather]

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” —Colossians 4:2 (NIV)

“Be persistent and devoted to prayer, being alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving.” —Colossians 4:2 (AMP)

“Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you.” —Jeremiah 29:12 (AMP)

“The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely and in truth.” —Psalm 145:18 (AMPC)

“How To Study The Bible” (Foundations) Devotional By Faithspring.

Day 4 - “Great Bible Study is Bookended By Prayer:”

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” – Martin Luther

“One of my favorite meals is grilled marinated chicken. Last summer, I looked up the process of marination because I wanted to know what was happening to the food to make it taste so good. Here’s what I discovered.

When you marinate food, usually a protein like chicken, you cover it in an acidic liquid (like vinegar or lemon juice). The acidic liquid breaks down the outer layers of the meat so that the flavorful seasonings can work their way in deeper.

Marination takes time. You can’t just drop a chicken breast in a marinade for a few minutes and expect it to hold the flavor. You have to give the process time to work.

Prayer is Christian marination. Praying with and in the Bible allows us to sit in God’s truth for an extended period in such a way that allows it to break through our outer barriers and “flavor” us beyond what we were capable of becoming on our own.

With this in mind, let me share with you the prayer I say every time I pick up my Bible:

Lord, please open me up to your Word, and open up your Word to me.

This sets the stage in my mind and heart for something to happen during my daily habit. I want to be changed. I want the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word. And I make these intentions clear by voicing this short prayer.

There are (quite literally) hundreds of ways to incorporate prayer into and around your Bible time. For now, I encourage you to try this short prayer and see what changes take place.

Pro-Tip: Do you find yourself frustrated in prayer because you don’t feel like God hears or answers you? Let me give you the advice my pastor gave me: lower your threshold. Most people think that hearing from God is a miraculous, life-altering event. In reality, God and the Holy Spirit are speaking to you every day (and even multiple times per day!). Lowering your threshold means (1) expecting God will speak to you and (2) actively looking for small ways in which He does. You don’t need a burning bush experience to encounter God; sometimes the right song on the radio can accomplish the same thing.”

[walkswithmyfather]

“I will follow your teachings forever and ever.”—Psalm 119:44 (ERV)

“I will observe your laws every moment of the day and will never forget the words you say. I will walk with you in complete freedom, for I seek to follow your every command.” —Psalm 119:44-45 (TPT)

“But solid food is for the [spiritually] mature, whose senses are trained by practice to distinguish between what is morally good and what is evil.”—Hebrews 5:14 (AMP)

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”—Luke 5:16 (NIV)

“How To Study The Bible” (Foundations) Devotional By Faithspring.

Day 2 - “Great Bible Study is Habitual:”

“We become what we repeatedly do.” – Sean Covey

“Whether we know it or not, our lives are based around our habits. What we eat, how we react to stress, whether or not we snooze the alarm – these are all dictated by the habits we have allowed into our lives.

Author Charles Duhigg writes that approximately 45% of everything we do in a day, every day, is habitual. If you have good habits, then this is encouraging. But if your habits aren’t what you want them to be, then that means half of the decisions you had the opportunity to make were already chosen for you (and poorly chosen at that).

I’m telling you this because I want you to grasp how important it really is to regularly get into God’s Word.

Why were the giants of faith we see in Scripture so effective? Because time with God and time in His Word were non-negotiable pieces of their every day.

Despite all the mistakes King David made, he kept coming back to God’s Word, readjusting his life according to what it said, and impacting Israel’s history because of it.

Paul grew up a passionate Pharisee who lived and breathed the Scriptures. And once Jesus upturned his life, he approached God’s Word with a whole new confidence and fulfilled his life’s purpose because of it.

If anyone could have taken a pass at a daily Bible habit, it was Jesus. Yet time and time again we see Jesus sneaking off to read and pray in quiet. He understood, better than any of us, how deeply our humanity needs to be fueled by encounters with the divine.

Pro-Tip: Struggling to consistently read your Bible? Leave it open and placed near either the entrance to your bedroom or kitchen. This way, just by going about your normal daily routine you'll read at least 1 verse as your walk by. The goal of creating a solid Bible habit is to make it simple (1 verse) and visual (already opened and in your path).”

[walkswithmyfather]

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” —2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)

“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” —James 3:1 (NKJV)

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” —2 Timothy 3:16‭-‬17 (ESV)

“How To Study The Bible” (Foundations) Devotional By Faithspring.

Day 3 - “Great Bible Study is Supported By Tools:”

“A man is only as good as his tools.” - Emmert Wolf

“One of my favorite things to do on my days off from work is to sit down with a warm mug of ginger-lemon tea and binge on cooking shows. It’s hypnotizing to watch a master chef at work. Everything they do is purposeful from the seasonings they use, to the temperature they set, down to the type of dish-ware they plate their creations on.

If you ask these world-class chefs what the most important element for cooking is, 99% of them will provide the same answer: ingredients. The fresher or rarer the ingredients, the more amazing the final dish is going to be.

For students of the Bible, our ingredients are the tools we use to help us understand Scripture. If we use good tools, we will develop a rich understanding of the Biblical world and learn how to apply the timeless truths found inside God’s Word. But if we turn to incomplete or inaccurate “ingredients”, our grasp of the Bible will come up short and possibly even lead us down dangerous paths.

2 Timothy urges us to become workers who are able to “rightly” handle the “word of truth.” The best way I know how to do this is:

Discover the tools available to you to help you understand the Bible.

Pray that God will lead you to a godly mentor to help you use these tools.

Now, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools out there. There are commentaries, dictionaries, concordances, maps, language software, and more. The #1 tool I always encourage my students to begin with is simple: a good translation.

Thankfully, tools like the YouVersion Bible app make it easy to access dozens of useful translations. This is where I encourage you to start.

There is treasure in the Word of God just waiting for those who are willing to go after it.

Pro-Tip: Do you want to take your Bible study to the next level but aren’t sure where to start? Choose one of your favorite verses and write out 5 different translations of that verse on a piece of paper. What differences/similarities do you notice? Your awareness as a reader is one of the best tools there is.”

https://bible.com/reading-plans/13388/day/3?segment=0

[walkswithmyfather]

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” —Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.” —Matthew 7:24 (NLT)

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” —Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

“How To Study The Bible” (Foundations) Devotional By Faithspring.

Day 1 - “Why Studying The Bible Matters:”

“It’s impossible to know God without knowing the Bible.

I remember the first time I heard this line. I was a young Christian eager to choose the right thing to guide my heart towards the right desires. I knew that God could transform my life and I wanted to know Him intimately.

What was He really like? What did He want from me? Why was I here?

Over the next decade, I made it my duty to learn the Bible as best as I could so that I could know God deeply. The decision has taken me on a path I could have never imagined.

This short devotional is an introduction to a few of the most useful insights I have picked up over the last decade. You'll discover the techniques, tools, and strategies to help you get the most out of your reading time, as well as encouragement to believe that knowing your Bible is worth every ounce of work it requires because the reward is God Himself.

Take the challenge and learn how to transform your Bible experience from a chore into an essential habit. God is waiting for you to know Him more. He’s laid out the grand invitation. What happens next is up to you.”