This is how i study the bible
Being intentional with my Bible reading has become so important to me. I think for a long time I was using the excuse of being in this busy season of motherhood and God has grace for that. And while I know God see’s and meets us where we are, it is still not an excuse to not read your Bible every day as a Christ follower.
We will make the time for our priorities and when I made the priority of putting Bible reading first and foremost, my spiritual life really started to flourish. I was wondering why I wasn’t hearing from God but realized quickly because I wasn’t giving him the time of day to speak to me.
For my birthday last year I purchased a new Bible. I wanted a fresh start and I really wanted a journaling Bible. I was previously using an ESV study Bible and while I think it is an amazing Bible full of lots of extra amazing information it didn’t really have room to make notes in it. I am a very visual learner, I am very creative and like to make lists. All of these things about myself lead me to getting a journaling Bible in order for me to retain the information in the way I learn best.
I got the Illuminated Art Journaling Bible and I absoloutly love it! I purchased these bible highlighters and also a water color paint set because I just love the idea of magnifying His words through art.
This post probably contains affiliate links. Full disclosure here.
I also created a Spiritual Disciplines journal for myself. I have really been trying to minimize this past year and I had so many little notebooks for prayer journals, Bible studies and sermon notes. I wanted a place to have all of these things collectively just like my Bible has all the information I need. I couldn’t find exactly what I needed online so I decided to create my own. I wanted something with room to grow.
I am going to share with you how I study my Bible through the POWER method that I created and go over some of the pages in my Spiritual Disciplines workbook.
I have been thinking about making these workbooks for other people, so if you are interested in that please let me know.
P – PRAY
I always start my Bible studying by praying. I thank God for who He is and what He has done and I just have a conversation with him about my life, my family and things going on around me. I ask Him to teach me something new today and reveal Himself to me and speak to me.
o – open
This is where I just stop and open my heart. I meditate and try to think about nothing and see what thoughts God will bring to my mind. Perhaps a person I need to pray for or a subject I need to study. A relationship that needs work or a fruit of the spirit not being evident in my life. It is amazing what you can learn when you just stop and open yourself up to what God has to say. I usually put on some instrumental worship music in the background to prepare for opening up the word. Sometimes I use this time to paint with watercolor in my Bible. Personally I do not like to cover any of my words which is why I love watercolor and I like to draw out pictures that represent the words on that particular day. This just really allows me to quiet my mind from other distractions and get full immersed into what I am about to learn.
W – Word
This is when I will read His word. I usually am following some sort of plan or working through the chapter that our Pastor had been teaching on the previous Sunday or just expanding on a verse that came to me that day or week. I am not much of a chronological reader and I like to jump around between the old and new testament. I try to build on what I was learning the day before or in a Bible study through church rather than starting at Genesis and working my way through. I like to read the scripture to myself, recite it out loud and also write all or part of it down on my POWER worksheet.
E- Examine
I hesitate to say this is the most important step because I think they are all equally important but this is the meat of the study. Where you are dissecting everything and learning more.
I made these little work sheets that talk about the history of the book, when it was written, who it was being written to, who wrote it and why. What the culture was like at that time. I also look for themes, repetition, lists, God’s character, keywords, comparisons, commands, location and people, transition words etc. I try to get everything I can out of this step. I will often read the scripture over again and see what I missed the first time.
I use highlighters to journal in my Bible to explain further, as well as write all this out on my POWER worksheet.
I will use blueletterbible.com the youversion app and other online tools in order to help me dive in further. Although ESV is my favorite version I do like to read other versions to gain more context.
R- Reflect
In this step I summarize in my own words what I learned from that passage of the Bible, I write down what this says about God’s character, about what it means to me in my life. and then I close in a reflection prayer asking God to help me in the areas and allow me to apply the principles I learned that day to my everyday life.
In my Spiritual Disciplines workbook I have prayer journal pages, prayer request pages, battle fighting pages (war room) sermon notes, gratitude pages and other types of study pages like themes, and people. I love having everything together in one spot. Its like my Bible of The Bible.
