Studying the Bible with Gusto

The Bible is the most important and amazing book. After all, it’s alive. It’s written by our Creator, and it is perfect. Unfortunately, because we are not perfect, sometimes the Bible can be so power-packed that we miss it completely, and three chapters later we aren’t really sure what we just read. We have to take our time and absorb the Scriptures – not fly through them like we might fly through a yellow traffic light about to change.

For me, the best way to absorb the Scriptures to both my memory and my heart has always been to keep a notebook near my Bible. Anytime I read, I almost always jotted down particularly meaningful passages, and I also added my own thoughts on the Scriptures. This has been a good practice for so many different reasons. Since the beginning of the year, I have been wanting to apply a little more structure to my studying. Sometimes I just need to change things up a little. I told the Lord this and asked Him to give me a new enthusiasm for reading the Bible, and He did.

Yesterday, I found a very simple and useful approach to studying the Bible. It’s just the structure and motivation I needed to delve back into the Word with gusto. It is called the S.A. method, and you may have heard of it. I just began using it today, and I think I’m going to stick with it for a while. The “S” stands for “Summary” and the “A” stands for “Application”. The idea is simple – read a chapter of the Bible, and then in your notebook, summarize the chapter in a couple sentences and then in a couple more sentences, write down how the chapter applies to your life. This way of studying makes concentration on the Scripture much easier, and I find that the application part naturally leads into prayer time, which is where true change begins.

If you are in need of a new way to study, this may be a good one to try. I began going through Philippians today, and instead of working on an entire chapter at once, I am tackling a section at a time (going by subheadings). Whichever way you choose to study the Bible, I hope you find it effective and reviving. May God bless you as you seek Him.