How to Study your Bible, get Closer to God, Improve your Prayer Life!

           I'll make it easy.

No one fully understands, knows or agrees with God, so don’t beat yourself up about it. The only way to attempt to know, understand or agree with God is to read His word. 1Corinthians 2:11-12

The Bible is the only book on Earth where God talks to Mankind individually and collectively, so let’s start by learning the Bible. I PROMISE it’s not that hard. It is not boring. It will BLOW your mind. I was a terrible student (I won’t shame my family name by telling you my GPA) and I found it easy once I figured out that God wants a relationship with me, ME! Terrible sinner that I am. 

He wants a relationship with YOU. NOW. Just the way you are.

If we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. James 4:8

Let’s do this.

Do not be intimidated by people who seem to know more about this stuff, they might be the people who spend more time reading the Bible than you, so use them as a resource.

There are lots of ways to do this, acronyms galore, hundreds of study Bibles, I’ll list a few ways that I study, and you can just click on the links from there.

Always start with Prayer.  

Before you read or study your Bible, Pray.

Here are two acronyms to use as you pray, before you open your Bible.

A.C.T.S.

            A adoration (praise Him)

            C confession (repent from sin)

            T thanks (express your gratitude)

            S supplication (ask in humility)        

Psalm 54:2

I.O.U.S.

            I   Incline my heart to your testimonies. Psalm 119:36 (since my heart is inclined to sleep and to work and to lots of things other than the Bible)

O  Open my eyes to see wonders in your word. Psalm 119:18 (since my heart is so often dull and blind to the wonders of the word.)

            U  Unite my heart to fear your name. Psalm 86:11 (since my heart is often divided and distracted in many directions)

            S  Satisfy me with your steadfast love. Psalm 90:14 (Since my heart is so tempted to be satisfied in other things.)

           

Or make up a small prayer to pray before opening your Bible

Here are a few ways to get to know your bible better and improve your prayer life. I'm starting with easiest and less time consuming first, building up to a more advanced level.

Start your Bible Study by reading one chapter from Psalms or Proverbs. To make it easy, go by the date, (ie today is September 20^th so I will read Psalm or Proverbs 20) this will also help you become familiar with the first 30 or so chapters of two books of the Bible! (5-10min)

Finding a spot in scripture to study isn’t as hard as you think. Pick a book. If you are new to this, start in the New Testament. (John, Luke, Mark, Corinthians)

            Look at the context of the scripture you are reading. Ask yourself: Who wrote this? To whom did they write it? When was it written? Why was it written? What is the point they are trying to get across?

           Hand write out the verse you are studying today; it can help you ‘see’ things you didn’t while reading it. Circle words that are repeated. Look for contrasts and comparisons.

           

           Look up words in the dictionary (Webster’s or a Bible Concordance). Look up any words you don’t know, words that are repeated or words you don‘t use in normal conversation. (grace, sanctification, deliverance, law, assurance.) This will BLOW OPEN the verse, so you can understand it more clearly. I promise.

I encourage you to READ the verse (or portion) 

    then WRITE it, 

        then READ, circle portions, look up words, 

            then READ it again.
                allow it all to really sink in!

After, write down what God is telling you, what you learned, questions you have. (15-30min)

Don’t be afraid to look up sermons, blogs or books on the verses after you have finished, use discernment, and hear what others have to say on it. 

Remember, your greatest resource (after the Holy Spirit, of course) is your brothers and sisters in Christ.  People have been studying the Bible for thousands of years, be open to their perspectives and realize people have different views on the same verse.

Going through the Bible in a Year. This is something people like to do, I think everyone should at least once in their lifetime, but if you don’t read your Bible much, I wouldn’t start by doing this, it can be hard to keep up on and you don’t want to get defeated before you start. However there are some great Bibles that will help you do this. My favorite is The One Year Bible. With this, each day you read some from the Old Testament, New Testament, part of Psalms and Proverbs. (20-30 min a day)

Prayer Journal. Write down your prayer requests, requests from others. Look up verses that support your prayer. (yay google) Read through them each day.  Leave room after the prayer and verse to add answer to prayer or prayer adjustment as time goes by. (10-15min) 

            More advanced Prayer Journal. Devote days of the week to things to pray about and write out their names and needs.

             Here is an example, each day you could pray for yourself, your immediate family, in addition pray for what is on your heart.

            Monday pray for co-workers

            Tuesday pray for friends

            Wednesday pray for local and national government

            Thursday pray for your Church family, Church leadership

            Friday pray for extended family 

(other things to pray for,  organizations, missionaries, corporations, countries, orphans, widows...)

"I know all the Bible Stories and I’m bored of studying."  

That can happen, so here is something that you’ll never not need to work on…..YOU.

Have you found out what your spiritual gifts are? If so, how do you use them?

 

The entire point of our Spiritual Gifts are so they can be used to glorify God and build up other believers.  Are you using them to glorify God? Are you using them to build up other people? (not tear down other people's beliefs, build them up). 

We should try to use our gifts to build up others on a daily basis.

There are several FREE quizzes online you can take that help show you what your gifts are, they also help clearly define each spiritual gift. (This can also be a controversial issue *sigh* because some believe some of these gifts are dead, and the ‘exact’ interpretation of them can vary) but for now, go read 1 Corinthians 12

Romans 12:3-8

Ephesians 4:11-16   take these quizzes, please click, quizA,  quizB 

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF,  don’t put down what you want to be, or wish you were, put down what is true.

For a more in-depth look on WHY you are bored,

please click HERE to see Mr Klas thoughts on this.

  I’ll post more on spiritual gifts. Share with me any great ways to start studying scripture or some ways you organize your prayer life below in the Comments section!