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Written by Pastor Abby Davidson

Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the Law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. Psalm 1:2

I remember my childhood Bible had this poem by Fanny Crosby written on the opening page:

Blessed Bible, sacred treasure,

Precious book of all the best,

There is comfort never failing and a calm abiding rest.

Read with reverence and commit it,

Verse by verse and day by day;

Tis’ the word that God has spoken,

And it cannot pass away.

These words are true of my experience with the Bible. There is nothing more important or foundational for us than the Word of God.  It provides comfort, conviction and inspiration. More importantly, it is how we get to know our Heavenly Father.

Bible study is essential to learning about God but it can seem daunting. Is there a way to do it without knowing Hebrew or Greek? We don’t all need to be scholars in order to understand the Bible. When digging into the Word try following this formula: Pray, Read, Observe, Interpret, Apply.

Pray that the Spirit will guide your reading and open your eyes to what God has to say to you.

Read the text.

Observe what is happening. Ask the 5W’s and H questions. Get out your coloured pens and highlight things that stand out to you; make lists, note contrasts and comparisons, metaphors and similes.

Interpret the passage. Look at the context for the passage, the chapter and the book. How does this relate to the wider message of the gospel?

Apply the text to your own life. How does this speak to me today in my context? When interpreting Scripture I like to ask three questions: What does this say about God? How is the gospel communicated? What does this mean for me?

These steps will help you get the most out of your reading. The beautiful thing about the Bible is that it is alive. I’ve read through the Bible several times and each time I learn new things. It never gets old or boring or irrelevant. Of all the spiritual disciplines, I believe that this is the most important one and one that we should all be practicing.

Over the past several weeks we’ve looked at different spiritual disciplines. I’ve highlighted a few of the ones that I’ve found to be particularly helpful on my journey of faith; fasting, keeping Sabbath, building margins into your life, silent prayer, scripture memory and Bible study.

As much as I hope to inspire you to try them, it’s not something that you truly appreciate until you experience it for yourself. I encourage you to commit to practice one over the next six months. As you do, you’ll grow deeper in your relationship to God and be transformed into the image of Christ.

If you want to further explore the spiritual disciplines you can check out Richard Foster’s A Celebration of Discipline, Lauren Winner’s Mudhouse Sabbath, Ruth Hailey Barton’s Sacred Rhythms or Donald S. Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.