Saturday, March 19, 2011

Has Your Checklist of How to Study

We have been learning to dig deeper in God's Word. Before digging into God's Word, we learned we need to spend time in prayer, seeking God, asking God to open our hearts and minds as to what He wants us to learn, and to wait till He leads you into the Word from your time of prayer. We are to ask God to give us a hunger for his Word and for wisdom – He is generous. He will answer.

After our quiet time with Him, we need to read the verse(s) on which we want to focus. Then we need to read the verse in context to the paragraph, the chapter and sometimes the book in which it is written. Studying God's Word is not accomplished in one sitting necessarily. Most times the most in-depth digging into God's Word is over a week, over a month or longer as He leads you. I remember when I had set aside four weeks for my mom to teach me and my friends about "submission" – the "s" word! It took six weeks. God's timing isn't our timing, and if He isn't through teaching us, then who are we to stop learning?

When we are studying God's word, we need to ask questions about every verse – who, what, when, where, why, how come. I'm sure you can think of more. Last week we talked about reading God's Word again using our imagination. We wondered what Mary was thinking when she told Jesus about there being no wine at the wedding. Did she want him to run down to the Piggly Wiggly and get some more? And what was it like to be that poor servant who was delivering the water to the master of ceremonies knowing he was expecting wine. I love reading God's Word using my imagination wondering what it would be like to be one of the people I'm reading about or one of the bystanders. What did they hear, see, smell?

These are things to remember during our course of study.

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