Gather your belongings. This is a common rookie error. When you’ve decided to do your Bible study, you’re more likely to stick to it if all of your materials are in the same area at the same time. So gather everything and position it in the location where you will study. Ensure you have your Bible, a pen or pencil, your devotional or Kindle, and anything else you might need ready to go in your location.
Before you begin studying, pray. Every day at the start of my Bible study, A Grateful Heart, I have a prayer written down. I pray this prayer every time I sit down to study the Bible, and you are welcome to do the same. It’s something I wrote a few years ago, and it still makes sense to me. I pray to God to join me in this study and open my heart and eyes to the message He has for me. It’s a minor detail, but I believe it makes a difference.
A Modern Girl’s Guide to Bible Study Jen Hatmaker’s book contains a lovely prayer. At the start of my journaling Bible, I wrote that, but it is much lengthier, and I frequently forget about it. So I say the prayer mentioned above that I have memorized.
Rules should be avoided. Contrary to popular belief, Christianity is not about rules. Being a Christian or a follower of Jesus Christ entails developing a personal relationship with Him. He does command us to read and study His Word. That is correct. However, he did not declare, “Thou must read three chapters of the Bible per day.” Doesn’t that sound absurd? I said before that you should start small, and I mean it. If you can only read one verse per day, read one verse. Isn’t it one more verse than you read yesterday? It is significant.
In A Grateful Heart (sample page displayed above), I recommend a piece to read and a poem or two to write. I’ll write more about it below, so stay tuned, but the reading is always brief. That, I believe, is significant. We are busy individuals who do not have time to sit and study our Bibles for 30 or 40 minutes every day. It would be ideal if we could, but we don’t. We can handle whatever comes our way, and that is sufficient. Don’t get so caught up in what you should have done that you miss out on what you could have done.
Make a scripture. As a former high school teacher with a Master’s degree in education, I can tell you all about the research that shows that handwriting helps you recall information exponentially more than reading alone. Still, the study would most likely be dull. So let’s leave it at that. Writing is important. Make it a practice to handwrite the verse or passages you want to focus on each day. (Not the full passage, but simply a verse or two that stood out to you and felt significant.) Keep a journal for this purpose to look back and see what you were thinking about at different points. It will serve as a record of your relationship with the Lord.
Consider keeping a daily devotional. A devotional is a compilation of small, Bible-focused sections that you can read to get a bite-sized portion of the Bible to ponder about throughout the day. They usually include a scripture reference, a short (a paragraph to a couple of pages) reading, and a prayer. I highly recommend using A Grateful Heart as a daily devotional for the two weeks of the course. The daily lessons relate to the reading portions and provide a jumping-off point for your research. After you’ve finished A Grateful Heart, you might want to read Jesus Calling or Jesus Always, which are two of my favorites. I read both every day to see which one connects with me and motivates me to do further research, and they both minister to my heart in different ways. If you’re looking for additional wonderful devotionals, I’ve listed a few in my Amazon shop that I’ve personally utilized.
So you’ve got a Bible and a devotional, and you’re ready to go. What comes next?
Alternatively, you’ve finished A Grateful Heart. What comes next?
Beginners frequently make the mistake of opening the Bible to a random page, putting their fingers down on a random verse, and starting a reading. They’re at a loss on what to do. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who has tried that aimless strategy at some point.) However, this is not a good strategy.
