8 Life-Giving Ways to Study the Bible

In my mid-thirties, my faith fell apart. A spiritual leader’s betrayal, marriage struggles, and personal burnout left me struggling to function and wondering what to believe. In that place of deep brokenness, God met me with dazzling grace. Grace so profound, I experienced its reality at the core of my wounded, weary being.

He surprised me. Where I expected to sense his disapproval or at least disappointment, I felt his delight. This experience revealed my flawed view of God and sent me back to His Word to discover his heart.

I embarked on a seven-year journey of reading slowly through the Bible, looking for anything it revealed about God. In a journal, I jotted down both direct statements and indirect observations. Those years breathed life back into my broken faith and taught my heart I could trust him.

While looking for God is important in any Bible study approach, to practice this as a method of its own, here are some simple suggestions:

• Choose a reading plan. I love the Reading Plan app, where you can customize your reading schedule and decide how you’ll track progress. If you’d like to read the Bible in a year, check out Bible Study Tools’ reading plans.
• Ask God to show you his heart. Read conversationally—talking to him about what you notice, voicing questions that arise, listening for what he wants to say to your heart in return. And remember, God is bigger than our human minds can comprehend, so be prepared for paradox, wonder, and mystery.
• Record insights you glean. In a notebook, write down where you’re reading and what you learn from that passage.

The Bible Project explains that all of Scripture is Jewish Meditation Literature. God intends for us to read and reread, to consider and corporately discuss His Word. Again, this applies to any method.

Meditation as its own practice, though, involves the following components:

-Quieting your heart. Silence is often difficult to find, and even more difficult to prioritize in our noisy, fast-paced world. Consider setting a timer for several minutes to help you intentionally focus on God. You might also keep a notepad handy for the random to-dos that come up as you sit in silence.

-Choosing a passage. I recommend using a reading plan for meditation, too. This can help you keep the context of your passage in mind.

-Reading the verses several times, noticing what stands out. Talk to God about what you see and listen for His Spirit speaking to your heart.

-Personalizing the passage. Ask God to show you how the verses you’re meditating on intersect with your life.

-Resting in his love. After you’ve meditated on Scripture and considered how God wants to apply it to your life, spend some time reflecting on his love. Love that holds you. Love that roots you in the abundant life. Love that produces the fruit of the Spirit in and through you.

Many Christians enjoy the ancient, Biblical meditation practice of Lectio Divina. To learn more, you can check out these articles—Lectio Divina and Lectio Divina Guide, as well as these resources Lectio Divina Journal and Lectio 365. (The two resources are also available as free apps.) You can also listen to our Daily Meditation podcast here.

What does God have to say about faith? About anxiety? About walking through grief? Whatever subject is on your heart, a topical study is a good way to learn God’s perspective on the issue.

When using this method, you’ll want to include some or all of these steps:

-Define your topic. You can use an English dictionary, a Bible dictionary, or a concordance/lexicon (books that explain words in the Bible’s original languages).

-Ask questions. What do you want to know about this topic? Are you confused about verses that seem to conflict? How did people in the Bible approach this issue?

-Look up related verses. A concordance is a great place to start. You can also use a Bible app or do a Google search to find verses that relate to your topic. Don’t forget to read each verse with its surrounding context.

-Make observations. Take notes as you study, recording new insights, connections between verses, etc.

-Summarize your topic. Write out what you learned about God’s perspective.

4. Surveying a Book of the Bible

Like studying the lid of a puzzle, surveying a book of the Bible shows us how its various pieces fit together, giving us an overview of its flow and main topics.

To survey a book, look for the following:

-Repeated words. I like to listen to the entire book in one sitting using an audio Bible and then read it in another translation, jotting down words or themes that keep coming up.

-Background information. What does the text reveal about the setting of this book—its human author, original readers, main characters, location, time in history, cultural issues, etc.? You might need to do some digging using other study tools to find answers that aren’t obvious in the text.

-Book outline/flow of thought. How does the human author tell the story or develop his main points? Consider giving each chapter or section a title.

-Summary verse. Is there one verse that sums up the main point of the book?

After observing all of this, write out the main theme(s) of the book and/or summarize it in your own words. Talk to God about what you learned and ask him how he wants to apply it to your life.

Related:

Inductive Bible Study allows you to spend lots of time poring over a single passage of Scripture. When possible, I recommend surveying the entire book first to give you the “bird’s eye” view. Then you can choose a smaller section to study in-depth.

Inductive Bible Study has three components:

1. Observation

Begin by asking questions. What logical questions arise as you read the text? You can use the 5 W’s and an H if it’s helpful (who, what, where, when, why, and how). As you study, come back to fill in answers you discover.

Notice and mark important words or phrases (repeated words, significant words, structural markers, etc.) Pay attention to the theme(s) being discussed. Make lists where applicable.

2. Interpretation

The purpose of this step is to discern the human author’s original intent. What did he mean to communicate when he penned these words under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration?

To do this, you can read your passage in other translations, look up cross references (similar verses in other parts of the Bible), study key words in their original language, and read Bible commentaries.

These tools are all available in print form or in many Bible apps (such as the Blue Letter Bible). Once you’ve spent time interpreting your passage, consider writing your own paraphrase.

3. Application

Based on your observation and interpretation, how does the Holy Spirit want you to apply what you’ve learned? Prayerfully consider the following questions:

-What does this passage reveal about God? About his people?

-What emotions, fears, resentments, or desires surfaced in me as I studied, and what does God want me to know about them?

-What is God calling me to believe?

-How is God calling me to respond?

This method is very similar to Inductive Bible Study, only in miniature. Instead of digging deep into a passage, Verse Mapping zeros in on a single verse. I learned how to use this approach from The James Method.

Here’s what’s involved:

-Copy the verse in several translations, paying attention to differences in wording.

-Gather basic background information, such as the setting, author, time period, etc.

-Note important words and study any you’d like to know more about. You can use a Bible dictionary, commentary, or word study option in a Bible app.

-Look up cross-references using the references in the margins of your Bible, a Bible app, or a concordance.

-Reflect on what the passage reveals about God and people, as well as any applications God is leading you to embrace.

7. Devotional Bible Study

Devotional Bible Study is not the same as reading a devotion. Rather, this method is devotional because it focuses on deep, personal connection with God. It’s quite simple in its approach. All you need is your Bible, a notebook, and a pen.

Here’s how I practice Devotional Bible Study:

-Quiet your heart. This helps us tune in to God’s presence.

-Journal an opening prayer. For me, this is like sitting down for coffee with a friend. I start out my Devotional Bible Study time by saying hello. It often goes something like this, “Good morning, Lord. Thank you for…” Then I tell him about the emotions I’m bringing to my time with him and ask for wisdom as I study.

-Read the next section in your Bible reading plan or book of the Bible you’re studying.

-Talk to God about what you read—questions that arise, observations you notice, topics you want to learn more about, etc. Ask the Holy Spirit to apply his words to your heart and life.

-Record what you learn. I like to write the book and chapter number at the top of my journal page, then write out insights next to verse numbers that prompted the notes.

-Consider closing your time by writing the passage in your own words or choosing a key verse to memorize.

This type of Bible study is often a form of creative worship. For some, it’s as simple as marking key words or phrases with different colors and making notes in the margins of their Bibles. For others, Bible Journaling is a work of art. You’ll want to make sure you have a Bible with wide margins or a separate notebook, along with whatever art supplies you’d like to use.

Here are some ways you can practice Bible Journaling:

-Read the Scripture you’ve selected. Again, I recommend reading through entire books to help keep the context in mind, pausing along the way to journal.

-Notice what stands out in the passage and prayerfully discern why it’s meaningful to you.

-Consider how you want to conceptualize the verse or phrase.

-Create! This might look like doodling around the verses, illustrating concepts in the margin, or writing out a key verse in creative fonts. If you prefer to engage with words instead of art, consider making lists in the margins of what the passage reveals about God, his people, or the topic being discussed.

This final practice isn’t specifically a study method, but rather a way to use Scripture itself as prayer. Praying through Scripture may involve any of the following:

-Personalizing a passage, putting your name or someone you’re praying for into the verses as you pray them back to God.

-Reading Bible verses as a prayer back to God. The Psalms lend themselves beautifully to this type of worship.

-Using Scripture as a guide to help you know how to pray for a person or situation.

Each of these practices can help us connect deeply with God. In my own personal Bible study, I often use a combination of methods. I may start out studying devotionally, but take a detour to look up the meaning of a key word and then begin searching for cross-references related to that word or topic.

Give yourself the freedom to try all these methods, use different ones in different seasons, and combine them to make them your own.

One final word…while there are many life-giving ways to study the Bible, not all Bible study is good Bible study. 

Related: 12 Motives and Methods to Look Out for in Bible Study

Healthy study methods will always remember the following:

The Bible has One Big Picture

The Bible tells a single main story—God as our true King, the earth as his Kingdom, and people as his Kingdom ambassadors. It recounts humanity’s sin, Jesus’ redemption, and the coming of his kingdom once and for all. Like any good story, it contains major plot movements, with smaller stories supporting the whole.

Wherever we’re studying in Scripture, whichever method we’re using, let’s always keep the big picture in mind.

The Bible Contains Many Genres

Scripture is like a library with sixty-six books between its front and back covers. These books were written in a variety of literary styles. The Bible Project divides them into three main genres, with subgenres for each category:

1. Narrative makes up 43% of the Bible. This includes historical literature, parables, and biography.

2. Poetry comprises 33% of Scripture. Poetic books include psalms, some wisdom books, and prophetic literature.

3. Prose discourse fills up the remaining 24%. The law, speeches, epistles, and other portions of wisdom literature fall into this broad category.

-Determining the genre of our passage will help us understand what we’re reading, so we can interpret and apply it well.

-The Bible should be read in context

Like any literary piece, sentences in the Bible are meant to be read in context—with the book where they’re found and with the Bible as a whole. Historical and cultural context is another important consideration. Faithful study looks for the author’s original intent, as well as how the original audience would have received these words. A great resource for understanding this type of context is the Cultural Background Study Bible.

These considerations provide a healthy framework for Bible study, preparing us to interpret Scripture well as we spend time with God.

May we approach God’s Word, whichever method we use, in search of him. And may these intimate times with Jesus delight our hearts, restore our souls, and transform our lives.

Related:

The Beginner's Guide to Reading the Bible

Setting Up a Morning Routine to Connect with God

5 Resources for New Believers to Develop a Solid Faith Foundation