Does your personal Bible time needs some encouragement? Let these tips serve as a booster to spark some inspiration and motivation for the most important thing you can do in a day: listen to God through His Word.
1. Start a Quest
Meaningful Bible study is hard to achieve with a casual or haphazard approach. You are better served when your Bible time is characterized by “quest,” saturating yourself in a segment (a book, a chapter) or a theme (mercy, forgiveness). This gives you a plan when you finally carve out some time to get in front of God’s Word. Proverbs 2 sets the stage for our approach: it’s to be more of a desperate search for hidden treasure, rather than a casual reading or devotional moment. Devotional moments are good, but they won’t deliver the payload that God’s Word is capable of delivering.
2. Find a Spot
One of my most meaningful Bible study spots was a nearby White Castle (the original “slider” hamburger place in the Midwest). Since White Castle sliders do not make for a breakfast of champions, the restaurant was quiet in the morning. But they had great coffee (still do) and a decent cinnamon roll. Your “spot” can be anywhere: a spot in your home, a coffee house, a park, library. The key point: designate a spot. Click here for a video clip from Bill Hybels that provides great encouragement and inspiration on this subject.
3. Quality over Quantity
To the Type A high achievers and the task-oriented in the crowd, we love to check things off the list and to measure the ground we’ve covered, thus driving us to try to cover a lot of ground. This approach can rob us of the essence of Bible study: hearing from God. Be patiently comfortable with spending a week in one chapter (or paragraph!) as you explore, meditate, ruminate, listen and respond.
4. Devote Prime Time
Yes, Jesus set a high bar with his prayer times of “early in the morning, while it was still dark.” If you are a morning person, great. Seize it. Take advantage of a quiet house (and world) and get your day off to an awesome start. If you are not a morning person, great. Embrace it. Remove the guilt and go for another time of the day. Here’s your motivator: Your time with God and His Word is the most important thing you will do all day. To the best of your ability, devote a time that captures your best energy and alertness.
5. Start Small
This is actually Step One for the first tip above, Start a Quest. The analogy of “eating an elephant one bite at a time” applies well to Bible study. Start with your personal curiosity: a book of the Bible you’ve never studied, a Bible character who intrigues you, a theological concept you’d like to better understand, a one-chapter book of the Bible you’ve hardly noticed. Ask God to show you what He wants you to see and to teach you what He wants you to learn. Then commit to change what He wants you to change.