Since January the Lord has directed me to change the way I study the Bible each day. I learned that the goal of reading God’s word is to behold the beauty of the Lord. What I learned came from a study I participated in at PWOC a couple of years ago by Tim Keller; which is a series of studies on prayer.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the deeper truths and as you listen to God’s word write down the answers to the following five questions. The first three ask questions of the text.
1. What does the passage say about God/Christ?
2. What does it say about yourself/mankind?
3. What is the most compelling truth you learned?
The last 2 questions are the reflection portion of God’s word where you allow the verses to ask questions of you. This helps what you learned drop down from your mind into your heart.
4. How would you be different if this truth were explosively alive in your inmost being?
5. Why is God showing you these things today?
The key to reading scripture and meditating properly on God’s word is to keep Christ central. When you read a verse such as “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous” it can be very discouraging because realistically who is righteous enough for God? Constantly pointing to Christ and saying “He did it!” brings the fire of God’s love to bear on every word. Jesus made it so our sins are credited to His account and His perfect righteousness lived for us is credited to ours. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
As time goes by, I have seen God’s beauty and I praise Him for the lessons I learned about Him during my prayer time. As you get used to studying the Bible this way, the amount of time it takes to do this process can be decreased by 5 or 10 minutes. Try it out on Psalm 1. You’ll be amazed at how the Holy Spirit can make even one verse explode truth and God’s beauty before you. Especially in light of what He’s done for you in Christ.
