Seven Steps on How to Study the Bible Effectively
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Introduction
For many generations the American people and many others around the world turned to the Christian Bible to find answers for their lives. Even if they did not consider the stories to be real accounts, the morals behind each account served as a guide of what to do or not do to be faithful to God and succeed in this life. However, in this current generation most people have turned away from the Bible as a positive source of inspiration or personal instruction. It is no wonder that we are experiencing a higher prevalence of corruption in both the private and public sector.
For those who wish to revisit the Bible but don't know how, this hub serves as a basic guide to how to study the Bible effectively.
Effective Bible Study Outlined
- Pray and Ask God to Open Your Mind and Heart
- Read through the Passage 30 Times
- Observe the Passage: Ask basic questions about the passage
- Interpret the Passage: Find explanations for anything you don't understand
- Apply the Passage: Ask yourself how you should respond
- Pray and Ask God to Help You Put the Lesson into Practice
- Track Your Progress in a Journal
Step One: Pray and Ask God to Open Your Mind and Heart
The first step to effective Bible Study is to pray and ask God to help you open your mind and heart to what the passage says. The Bible contains spiritual insights that come from the Mind of the Living God. God is infinite and we are finite. This means that God has no limits and we do. In order to understand God's ways we need His Holy Spirit to help us. God is directly interested in you and your life. He wants you to live the best life possible. Accordingly, he wants you to understand the words of the Bible which he gave to us that we might know him and his ways. So, if you want to get the most out of your Bible study, it is imperative to pray and ask God to help you.
Step Two: Read the Chosen Passage 30 Times
The second step to effectively study the Bible is to read through your chosen passage 30 times. Whether you plan to study one chapter at a time or a whole book of the Bible, it is important to read through your chosen passage numerous times in order to get a strong overview of that section. After you have a good overview of the entire passage, you are ready to break it down into bite-size chunks.
Step Three: Observe the Passage
The next step in an Effective Bible Study is to observe the passage by asking basic questions about the verses. Such basic questions include: who? what? when? where?and how?
Step Four: Interpret the Passage
Invariably, when you read and study the Bible, you will come to some personalities or concepts that you will not understand without further research and explanation. In this fourth step, a person who wants to study the Bible effectively will do further research on the related subjects. Some effective tools for further research are Bible commentaries (like the People's Commentary or J. Vernon McGee's verse by verse commentaries), Bible handbooks, and Bible Dictionaries.
Step Five: Apply the Passage
The fifth step to effective Bible Study is to discover all the possible application or action points related to the passage. Any one set of verses may contain multiple application points. A well-executed Bible study will lead the person to list out all the possible action points.
Step Six: Pray and Ask God to Help You Apply the lesson
The sixth step in effective Bible Study is to pray once more to ask God to help you apply the lesson to your life. This means that you need to ask God to clarify which of the discovered application points is most important to put into practice. As discussed above, any one passage might have numerous application points. In this section, you will discover which one or two of those points best addresses your current life situation.
Step Seven: Track Your Progress in a Journal
The last step of an effective Bible study is to track your progress in a journal. After you have discovered which action point relates to you most, write it down in a journal and from time to time evaluate how you are doing in that area.
What is Your Favorite Book of the Bible?
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Comments
naa, thank you for the encouragement. I pray that your study of God's Word draws you closer to him.
I would like to give my steps to studying the word of Yehwah
1) Study the historical background of scripture
2) Study the cultural background of scripture
3) Study the biblical languages
GreatContent, Thank you for your comment. Those are three excellent ways to get the most out of the Bible.
A great tool for studying the Bible - brief and to the point. Well done ecoggins!
Excellent hub I like it a lot, there is much to be taken from this and I hope to apply it to my studies of the Bible asap. God bless!
Gicky and thecatholicexpert,
thank you for your kind comments. Peace and all God's best.
Christian success is gained by doing that which is in accord with God’s will. So, then, if one takes in knowledge regularly, he can expect to have that inward satisfaction that brings deep joy. It is most vital, then, that we highly treasure the commandments that God has given; ‘we should treasure them and continue living.’ Permitting our minds to dwell on this Scriptural expression brings our thoughts right back to study: “A wise person will listen and take in more instruction, and a man of understanding is the one who acquires skillful direction, to understand a proverb.” To listen does not mean only to hear the voice of an individual and to take in knowledge through our sense of hearing. The same is true when we read and study the words from the printed page, information taken in through the sense of sight. In this way, too, we are “listening” to the author of the words and being taught. Thus we gradually gain understanding and progress toward maturity.
hi genwasdix thank you for the enlightened comment.
Seek and you will find. I loved this hub.
I love to do topical studies and use the following methods:
1. I look the topic up in the Concordance (i.e. love)
2. I look up all the definitions given for the word love
3. I then look up all the passages that use each type of love and read the context.
4. If I have questions, I look at the cross-references to that verse in another part of scripture.
I don't know that I have a favorite book of the Bible, but I do find Revelation fascinating, though the books of Acts and Romans are awesome!
Judah's Daughter, thank you for sharing. I appreciate it very much. Topical studies are another wonderful way to gain greater understanding of God and his ways and to grow in our relationship with Jesus.
Isn't a bit of background reading helpful too? I mean, in the case of Genesis, some knowledge of Babylon could be useful? Or, maybe, something about the Captivity might come in handy in, say, the Book of Jeremiah?
prziloczek, yes, you make an excellent point. Background reading can give you insights into the context of the passage. Thank you for sharing that. When reading a passage it is important to write down questions about people, places or ideas that don't make sense or that need extra explanation. This is normally done during the interpretation part of the study. You cannot interpret a passage well if you don't have a clear handle on the context in which it was written.
since Christianity is about Christ I believe that he should be where we begin our study, As you say read this 30 times until we understand "him" as much as possible. And do this with as little interpretation as is possible
Thank you Jerami. You make a very good point. Any Bible study should lead us to a greater understanding of Christ.
Any bible study should lead us to greater understanding of Christ?? I believe that greater understanding of Christ leads us on the right path to understanding bible study (scripture). That sounds like an insignificant difference BUT ?????
ecoggins, I hope I don't offend Jerami, but he and I have chatted before, in that he really believes all should just read the red letters of the gospels (Jesus' words) and base the rest of the Bible on what Jesus said ~ even that of Revelation.
I would say that the Old Testament prophesied Jesus' coming; the New Testament fulfilled those prophesies, then went on with the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus said His ministry was to and for the lost sheep of Israel. Paul's message and other New Testament chapters were for the Gentiles and saved Jews.
Revelation is prophecy and most Christians believe the Great Tribulation has not yet begun, where Jerami believes Jesus has already returned and the rapture has already taken place...based on Matthew 24:34.
Hope you don't mind me sharing a little more here, Jerami, as it would be good to get ecoggins' feed-back on this for you and other readers that may believe the same :-)
Ecoggins; I don't mean to offend either you or J.D. I believe all of scripture is important. I think that the Jesus said, God said, Gabriel said, is THE MOST important of ALL !!!!!!!The rest of scripture has to fit on THAT foundation or I will keep studing harder till it does. What J.D. said is true, I do believe that but because of Matthew 23 and 24 which is basically ONE conversation. Ya should read both chapters as if you are playing the part of Jesus in a high school play. see how it sounds?
Jerami and Judah's Daughter, thank you for sharing your perspectives on how to study the bible. I think both of you are right. Both the Old Testament prepares the world for the Christ and the New Testament reveals who the Christ is and how to live for him. All Scripture points to him so the better we know Christ the more we will understand Scripture and the more we understand the other Scriptures the more we will understand the Christ. As Paul says to Timothy, all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for our lives.
However, respectfully, the point of this hub is not to argue the theology of Bible study, only to offer a few tips on how to study God's Word in a meaningful way. You have both graciously added to that discussion with some of your own tips and I am grateful.
really nice hub, this would really help me read the bible!
check out my hub at http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Voice-Of-Faith
hope you like it!!
ecoggins,
Reading bible passage for 30 times! That's lot of read, I guess by that time, you would have memorized it.
naa says:
5 months ago
i really love the idea it looks easy but has a lot in it thanks for the tips or should i say help
i pray the Lord blesses you