How To Study Your Bible:

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.-2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Bible is God's Word. So we give ourselves to know what God has revealed about Himself and us. And, since God inspired it, it follows that Christians would ask God for His help in understanding it. That's actually the first step in studying the Bible. Pray for God to give you wisdom and that He would help you to understand even those parts of the Bible that you find more difficult. By and large, Scripture is plain and its message is clear. The whole point of God's revealing Himself in His Word is for us to be able to read and understand it. That's why we study

Once we've prayed, we simply need to read the Bible. We need to inwardly digest God's Word because "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." No plan to study every works if we fail to commit the time to read.

We should not only read our favorite parts, but we should read all of the Bible, the whole thing, every word. We want to grasp the passage we're reading in its immediate context and in the flow of the story of the whole Bible. Knowing that a verse is in Deuteronomy will help us to understand it. God promising His people that He will drive out particular tribes before them makes sense in Deuteronomy in a way that wouldn't in 1 or 2 Timothy! So we want to read all of Scripture, for our understanding and edification.

Seasons of more intense study are also useful. Sometimes giving time to memorizing verses or whole passages helps us to meditate, consider, inspect, and notice what God has revealed. Even if our memories aren't perfect, they can sometimes last a lifetime. Other times, we should read larger portions of Scripture. Reading a whole book in one sitting can help us grasp the whole message of Joshua, or to understand the main emphasis of Paul's letter to Titus.

If you're reading the Old Testament, consider how your passage point to or is fulfilled in Christ. Christ is the key to understanding what God is doing in the whole Bible-the OT as well as the NT. The futility of this life that Ecclesiastes depicts is true- "under the sun.". But all of that changes when we begin to live "under the Son!" The trials of Job, the history of David's life, the parables of God's judgment on Israel in Ezekiel-all of these point in various ways to Christ.

Study the Bible regularly. God's Word is more vital than even our physical bread, Christ's prayer in Matthew 6:11 for daily bread encourages us to peruse God's Word every day. Find a good time and place where you can read God's Word, giving it the prayerful and careful attention it deserves. Read it when you feel like it and when you don't. Make it a discipline, a habit, a form of your life.

Read God's Word carefully. Ask yourself these questions and in this order: What does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean to me? We sometimes are so eager to get to that third question that we don't consider carefully enough what the passage actually means. And sometimes, we are so interested in one particular part of a verse that we don't give enough attention to the whole thing. That's why it's important that we begin with the most obvious questions, "What does it say?" Here we note carefully which words God has placed in a particular portion of Scripture.

Finally, we should study God's Word devotionally. When we come to God's Word we want to know how it will apply to our own life and to our understanding of God. We want to have our minds better informed of God and the gospel. We want to have the blindness to our own sins ended and our hearts stirred up to better love God and others. We want to revere God and follow Him. We want to change what we need to change.

In conclusion, as Martin Luther said to his young disciple, "you cannot read too much in scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well." Let us go to God's Word and learn more of Him, and be changed to His glory and for our everlasting glory.