How To Study God's Word

Jeremiah 30:21 says "I will bring him near and he will come close to me, for who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?"

If a carpenter is up on a ladder trying to work on a roof, does he get down from his ladder each time he needs a nail and look through the whole pile to choose just the right one? Or, does he carry the nails close to him in a belt that while he is on the ladder working he can easily reach in and grab the nearest… most available nail?

This is much of what the Lord is saying in Jeremiah 30:21. Which of us will come close to Jesus, and devote ourselves to being close to him…and available for him to use? This is the person who the Lord will use. J The Lord will use the person who is devoted to Him and who makes himself available and who yields his will and his life to Jesus....allowing Him to be Lord.

Proverbs 8:32-34 "Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching DAILY at my doors, waiting at my doorway."

So, the first thing that I would encourage you to do to be close and to become more available to the Lord, is to spend time DAILY in God's Word, praying and waiting upon the Lord and His direction and voice for your life.

There is no hard and fast "rule" about what time of day, but I have found and heard from many others that spending time first thing in the morning, that this is the best way to start your day…before it quickly begins to "unravel". J  As I choose to count it important to draw close to the Lord, and give him the "first fruits" of my day and time and effort, He blesses it in such a way that is so amazing. We often feel as busy wives and mothers that if we get up early, we'll never have enough energy to make it through our day. This is not what I've found. I have instead seen the opposite be true….that the benefits of spending this early morning time with Jesus, FAR outweighs the few minutes of sleep I would have gotten.

If we only pray, without reading God's Word, we can be easily confused or deceived thinking we are hearing God's voice, when we may not be. We need to both read God's Word AND pray. In this way we will have the help of the Holy Spirit to guide us to have knowledge, wisdom, discernment and understanding from the Scriptures. It is a more balanced approach.

In our family we choose a book of the Bible and we switch back and forth between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  For instance I just finished James and am now in Nehemiah. If you spend between 30 to 60 min. a day reading God's Word you can easily finish the whole Bible in just one year. If you do this every year, you will begin to have God's Word written upon your heart in a wonderful way. His Word will become like a wonderful, godly "filter" that everything you see, hear, and read will be filtered through. All of us have MANY decisions we must make each and every day. We often find ourselves wishing we knew what was right  to do and what decision would be right. The more time we spend reading God's Word, and seeking his face, waiting upon him, knowing his principles the more we'll know what to do that would be right, good and biblical as we go throughout our day. 

Each morning I pray and ask the Lord to show me what he has for me.

It might be:

1. Something new and more wonderful about Himself.
2. It might be a promise of God
3. It might be a direction to follow or a command to obey
4. Or it might be a correction, or something I need to confess and make right between God and whomever else I've offended
5. Or instruction

Being alert and attentive and having an attitude of studying and purposefulness while I read really helps.  We need to have an attitude of expectancy and anticipation while we read. We don't read to just "check it off our list" of daily to do's. We read, to deepen our relationship with Christ and to KNOW Him and His principles so we can apply them to our lives.

As I read, I am concentrating.  I don't fret or worry about what I do not yet understand, instead I focus on what the Lord does make clear to me or what he does cause to "stand out" to me. The more I've read and the more I've tried to apply what the Lord has shown me, the more my understanding has grown. As we are faithful stewards of the small amount of truth we understand, the Lord is faithful to give us more wisdom, discernment and understanding!

As you read a section or passage of Scripture you are asking yourself 3 questions.

1. What is going on in this passage? What are the main facts?
2. What does it mean? What are the lessons to be learned?
3. What does it mean to me, personally? How am I going to take this Scripture and allow it to become my flesh…apart of my life?

These three questions helps us to begin to discern what God's truths are, and how to apply them to our lives by the direction and leading of the Holy Spirit.

I love that God makes it possible for anyone who is able to read to be able to learn about Him and to know his truth and his principles. He has not made it difficult or something that we cannot attain….we just need to be willing to be disciplined and read His Word that he has so graciously and lovingly given us.

Sometimes it helps to personalize the passage you're reading inserting the first person or your specific name.

Pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom and discernment and show you ways to apply his principles and truth to your life.  He is faithful. He says he will give us wisdom if we ask for it. James 1:5

As I read Scripture, I stop when something "stands out" to me. If it is something wonderful that the Lord has done, I will stop and pray and thank God and praise him. If it is something the Lord tells me that I should be doing and I realize that I'm not...I will stop and pray and confess it to the Lord and seek his help and forgiveness. And I can ask him for what to do instead or for how to apply that truth to my life. I pray all through my Bible reading time...not just at the beginning and end. I am praying throughout my time of reading in God's Word each morning. This is what helps me to respond to the Holy Spirit's leading and guiding quickly.

Question #1 "What is going on here?" the answer is that some men come from Judah to talk with Nehemiah. They want him to help the remnant of Jews that are in Jerusalem. They are appealing to Nehemiah for his help in rebuilding the walls and in helping the people who are living in the broken down, unprotected city of Jerusalem. The people are in distress and are troubled. Nehemiah's reaction is one of humility and of immediately seeking the Lord. Nehemiah looks to God first, as he prayed and fasted and then he goes before the King, he is serving under. The king grants him this privilege. He gives Nehemiah papers so that he can get lumber from the king's forest. So God, moved within the heart of this king to not only grant this appeal, and let Nehemiah go…but to also to provide for some of the needs in the rebuilding as well!

Nehemiah mourned and he fasted…before God. He then confessed his sins and the sins of his people. He recounts God's commands to his people and the punishment that God said would happen, if they did not