How can you have a meaningful Bible study? Here are two more tips to get more out of your study.
Transcript
[Steve Myers] The question had come in, "How do I have a successful Bible study?" That's a wonderful question and I thought it might be helpful to continue with that thought for a moment. If you remember our last BT Daily on this subject, we talked about the fact that first of all, you've got to be sure that you recognize that the Bible is God's word—that it is inspired.
Part of the process of having a successful Bible study as well is that you've got to be sure you plan time to study the Bible. Just don't hope that it's going to happen, but actually make it a part of your daily schedule. And as you do that, one of the important aspects as well is to pray about it—to pray and ask God to direct you as you study His word because this is God speaking to you. And we want God's guidance as He opens our minds to His truth. And so those things are an important start as we think about studying the word of God.
But you know it shouldn't stop there as well.
As you think about studying the Bible, one of the challenges is it may not always agree with what you've thought the Bible says. And so one of the things we've got to be able to do is approach the Bible with an opened mind.
There's a wonderful example of this over in Acts 17. In Acts 17 it talks about the Bereans, and they were a people that they weren't quite sure if the Apostle Paul's teachings were exactly the word of God. And so you know what it says about them? It says they, "Were more fair minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness," they were ready for the word, and it says they "searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). And so they approached the Bible, they approached the word of God with a positive frame of mind. They weren't trying to prove that this was wrong, but they were trying to find out, is this really true? Is this what the Bible says?
And so as we study the word of God, we've got to make sure we keep an open mind. We keep an open mind to the word of God and when the word of God says something, that's what we better do. We better understand what it says, pray about it, and then as it says things to us as God speaks to us, let's make sure we do those things. And we follow those things that the word of God actually says. So that's an important part of studying the Bible.
And, of course, as you study the Bible part of what we're looking for is God's guidance in our life. So we want God to lead us. So we want Him to guide and to lead us and hopefully infuse our mind with His way of thinking. And there's a passage in the book of Jeremiah that certainly reminds us of that. It's in Jeremiah 10. Jeremiah chapter 10 and if you go to verse 23 there's a great section of scripture there that you should read for yourself because it says that, you know, I don't know everything. It says it's not in me, it's not in man to direct his steps. That we need God's guidance to lead us and to direct us and to help us to do the things that are right in our life (Jeremiah 10:23).
So I think with these two additions to studying the Bible, we can really begin to get a handle on what God's will is for our lives. So as you study the Bible, certainly put these into the framework of what you're doing every single day. And as we do that, God will speak to us and God will direct us. So, let's pray for that and let's be sure to study the word of God.
