A Simple Method for Bible Study

I remember walking to my car after a church service very encouraged by the message I heard and as the same time I had no idea how the pastor went from the passage to the takeaways he preached. I started feeling confused and a little disheartened. 

How was I going to be able to personally read my bible and hear from God? 

A couple years later in the middle of Bible College and I felt even more overwhelmed. My head was full with new insights, new paradigms and new information. I was learning so much I couldn’t see how to simplify helping someone else know how to study God’s word. 

If I met a person who didn’t have all the resources and teaching I had received, what could I possibly give them?

Fast forward a few years…

I moved past the firehose of information I learned and found clarity and simplicity in helping others encounter God’s word. 

Teaching Bible Study Methods under one of our professors during college was the beginning. After college, Steve and I moved to Germany and served as military youth pastors. Every week I gathered students and we engaged God’s word together. Some who previously thought Jesus was only a swear word met God through His word, and their lives changed as they received His love and followed Him. 

Now, my greatest joy is eating breakfast and opening the Bible with my own kids. We ask questions, make connections, laugh and even cry. I watch them grow close to God in their own personal relationship with Him as they see His love displayed over and over. 

The format I follow for Bible Study is so simple anyone can do it! All you need is the Bible and Jesus’ gift to us – His Holy Spirit. 

I follow this format: Read, Remember, Reflect, Respond & Pray

Read: We first read a passage. 

Remember: Then we close the Bible and try to remember what we just read. This part is fun because everyone remembers different things. When we have more time I encourage them to look again and really observe the details. 

Reflect: We ask 1. What do we learn about God in this passage? 2. What do we learn about humans? So simple, and yet the answers and discussion are profound.

Respond: Based on what we learned, what would be an appropriate response to God’s word in this passage? Everyone will have a different response and sometimes we pause for 30 seconds and think and pray about it. 

Pray: I love including time to listen to God. I grew up mostly talking to Him and now I realize prayer is as much about listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit as it is praying! 

My prayer for us and for you is that we will have the desire to set aside pockets of time where we can know our Creator God through His Word and to connect to Him through prayer! He is so worth it! 

I created a Family Advent Study that follows this method looking through the Scriptures for The Promised One – Jesus! It’s a resource you can use year after year!

https://amzn.to/3Vj5jeh