January 16
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
There are a variety of ways of approaching the scriptures. There is meditation on the Word, which is a pondering and thinking about the scriptures. Psalm 1 describes the blessings this will confer on those who practice it. Then there is scripture memorization, a discipline that I regrettably practiced a lot more diligently when I was a younger Christian compared to now (but I am asking God to help me reestablish that good habit).
Then there is the practice of reading the scripture, which it seems to me most Christians do during the time that they do give to the scriptures. Some try reading through the Bible in a year, some just read what they feel like reading. This is good and better than nothing, but I don’t think it is enough nor is it what the scriptures themselves are indicating that we should be doing. Reading is like a brief refresher, and only then is a refresher if I consciously try to hold on to something I have read. So better than nothing, but for most people it is not enough to transform us.
I and many pastors and Bible teachers are convinced that every Christian needs to be digging deeper into the Word, studying it, memorizing it, and meditating on it, in order to experience it’s transforming power. But this takes time and effort. It takes diligence and a willingness to fight our fleshly desires, which will resist this activity every day, every opportunity, every minute we try to give to it. So I recommend the following:
1) Set aside a time and place when and where every day you can study the scripture without interruptions for a half hour to an hour. I find that an hour is a good amount of time, and it is my goal to spend an hour in the Word every day.
2) Purchase a notebook that you can take detailed notes in. Keep in mind that you may be keeping these notes for a long time and may want to spend a little more on a better quality notebook.
3) Get a concordance and other tools to go deeper, like a dictionary of the Bible or an interlinear translation. I mainly use a concordance and find I can do a lot just with it, but I have a number of other tools available, and now online there are all kinds of extra resources. But in my thinking it is always better to do your own research first.
4) Ask the Lord to help guide you in your topic selection and study. Pray for your study time, that the Lord would show you new things that you never realized before. This is an important step, because it is too easy to approach the scriptures like we can understand them and we can pull things out of them, which to me is basically a proud approach. Rather, realize that it is a living book and that God reveals and God feeds. Only through humility and His guidance will we really see His truths come alive to us, I believe.
5) Then pick something you are interested in. A topic, a word, a verse, something small and bite sized at first. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Don’t say, “I’m going to study Romans” and dive right in. I don’t think you will get very far. Even an in depth study of one verse can take a good while. Start simple, like one word from one verse that you want to study and learn more about. Think small, manageable steps, topics you can finish in one or two days. Then choose deeper subjects as you get the hang of it. Recently, I finished going through the New Testament and writing down all of the promises of God that I could find. It took months, but it was very good. I don’t recommend doing something like this as you first get started, but it is an example of the kind of topic you can explore. It is up to you, and you want this to be a free time, not a burdensome thing. If you pick a topic that you realize is too much, then try to wrap it up in one or two days and move on to something else.
And with that we will stop for today and pick up the other steps tomorrow.