When you get ready to do some Bible study on your own, what do you do? Buy a study guide? Pick up a blank notebook to write down questions and thoughts and make notes about what you learn?
Or are you too intimidated to do Bible study on your own? Do you think that you're not disciplined enough...not knowledgable enough...don't have enough resources to succeed at this task?
Grab a pen and some paper and your Bible. Take a seat. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you sit down to study the Bible:
What patterns do you observe in the passage?
How does this book relate to other books of the Bible? Other literary works?
What cultural information relates to this passage? What similar experience have you had in your life? How can you personally relate to the passage?
What life lessons are found in this passage?
What is God telling you through this passage?
What attributes of God do you see in the passage? How does this discovery change your relationship with Him?
Comments
"Am I willing to believe what God says through His Word, the Bible, more than my personal opinions, more than my church pastor, and more than the religious traditions I was raised in?"
As I point out in my blog, we need God's help to understand the Bible, and God gives that help to those who are willing to believe Him and strive to obey Him.
God may test us on our willingness to believe Him. He may show us a point of truth in the Bible that is hard for us to accept, but if we give up what we want to believe and are willing to believe what God says, then God can help us understand more of the Bible, one point at a time. But if at any point we reject believing what God says in favor of our traditions, if we interpret the Bible to fit what we want to believe, then God's help stops and the understanding stops also.