This plan is not original with me. Our pastor typed up all the questions and schedule and our entire church group uses it. At first I found this plan tedious and difficult, but as time goes on, I've enjoyed it more and more as I've been able to apply Scripture to my life and see the difference it makes.
Our Bible reading schedule is set up for reading and studying one chapter of Scripture each day then answering the following questions about each chapter.
1) List one thing that jumps out at you. This can be a whole verse, a word, a phrase, anything in the chapter.
2) Please explain why it jumped out.
3) How will this change the way you live your life? This means practical application for daily living.
4) Based upon the answers above, what area of your Christian walk is God developing?
__Growing your faith in Christ.
__Passing the hope of Christ on to others.
__Building love relationships with Christ and people.
5) Write down any insight you have received concerning salvation in Christ.
6) Write down your prayer for the day.
This is designed to take about 15 minutes each day, which is a small sacrifice to make in order to grow in Christ. Depending on the book and chapter that I am studying, it may take me more like 30 minutes to complete this each day, but I find the effort is well worth the benefits!
We discuss a predetermined chapter each Sunday with everyone sharing their insight. Another help is that we are encouraged to participate in a Life Group each week where we meet with one or two persons of the same gender to discuss what we got out of each chapter and then praying together about any requests we may have. I have met with a friend for over a year now and it has been exciting to see how consistent time in the Word and sharing our insights with someone else has facilitated extreme growth in both of us.
In years past, although I had a desire to spend time with the Lord, I had a difficult time understanding and applying to my life what I was reading. A light bulb came on one day when asking for God's wisdom before reading the Bible was mentioned. Well, duh!
I began to faithfully ask God to open my spiritual eyes and ears as I read His Word so that I would be able to see and hear what He wanted to teach me. I asked Him to show me something that would enable me to better equip me to live my life for Him.
And do you know what? God has been faithful to answer those simple prayers. Some days it takes a while to find something in a particular chapter and sometimes I pray and read and nothing jumps out until I come back to it later. It's a matter of waiting for God to reveal to me what He wants me to get.
This method works for me.
No matter what method you may use,when it comes to Bible study, consistency is the key! Along with that, accountability and writing down the insights you've received so you can remember them later are so very important to growing in Christ.
Come back next week when I tell you more about our church and what makes us unique.
In regards to Bible study, what works for you? Please share.
**This post is a part of Works For Me Wednesday!
1 comment:
I'm inspired! I'll have to look into your method a bit more ~ thanks for posting, Mary Ann! I have started a journal at times and then I stopped for various reasons, then re-started. I do pretty consistent reading but not so consistent journaling. Our church gives us a "Read Your Bible in a Year" plan each year with a calendar book. That's pretty neat.
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