[Darris McNeely] Been going through a series of BT Dailies of how to have a successful Bible study. Today, in part three, I want to talk a little bit about right approach and is this. We need to pray before we ever sit down and ask God for understanding, His understanding. That's critical. It's not just our understanding. In Psalm 119:33-34, the psalmist says, "Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart."

Before you ever begin to sit down with your Bible and study the Bible, say that prayer. Ask God to give you understanding that you will be able to keep what He says in His Word. We can't do it on our own. If we go into it with our own preconceived ideas, then we're going to fail. We'll come back out with our same ideas. We actually need God's help, and the first step is to ask and expect that God will give it.

Jeremiah 9, another critical thought that we want to have when we come out of Bible study, verses 23 to 24, thus says the Lord, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and he knows me." (Jeremiah 9:23-23)

When we sit down to study the Bible, when we come out of that study, we want to understand what God is saying, teaching, and what He means for us more than anything else. Pray for that understanding, you'll have successful Bible study.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.