S6 BONUS 4 | 5 Tips To Help You Develop Regular Bible Study Habits
Listen to learn 5 practical tips from Carla on developing an engaging Bible study routine. Overcome the challenge of getting started and be empowered to be consistent with Carla’s tried and true approach!
Set the Right Expectation
Your time in the Word won’t look like others’ time in the Word. You may not be able to spend 30 minutes in the word first thing in the morning! Check in with your mental ability, season of life and time frames, and set goals you can consistently hit.
Approach Study with Curiosity and Excitement
If you view studying the word as a chore, it won’t motivate you very positively (unless you love chores!) - try shifting your perspective of study from a checkbox on your to-do list to an opportunity to learn and grow!
Ask yourself:
What is going to be revealed today?
What new thing am I going to learn about God/Jesus?
What new thing am I going to learn about myself?
How am I going to see Jesus in this text today?
Use resources to help you
You are not expected to pick up the Bible and immediately know everything about everything. Even pastors use concordances, studies, frameworks and other resources to draw connections and parallels in the Word. Not only can other resources help guide you, but they absolutely enhance your study experience.
Carla actually has several resources available to you, ones geared to supporting faith in the mental health world! Check them out!
Pray for Insight & Understanding
Remember, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling and are equipped to understand the Word! Show up ready to understand and have a humble discourse with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, always asking for understanding.
Keep Going!
There will be days where you encounter incredible revelation in the Word, and there will be days that feel dry. No time spent with Christ is wasted or fruitless. Don’t stop pursuing intimacy through the Word.
Bonus Tip! Take Your Thoughts Captive
Thoughts will invade, and you can protect your Bible Study time by practicing capturing your thoughts and staying focused on the Truth and the Word.
Connect With Carla:
Inquire about 1:1 coaching ---> carlaagreswellness@gmail.com
Join In His Image Wellness Collective ---> carlaargeswellness@gmail.com
Come hangout on IG with me @carlaarges
Check out the blog
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Carla: Hey friends, welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review. I am so glad you're here. Let's get started.
[00:00:36] Hey friends, it's Carla here. Welcome to this bonus episode of affirming truths. Now, I don't know if you guys know this, but I have a free Facebook community for y'all. Um, it's called, uh, mental health support for Christian women. And over the past couple of days, maybe even weeks, [00:01:00] I've had a few people from that group reach out and ask, how do I get into the Bible?
[00:01:08] I am struggling with Bible study and I did a live in that group, um, and you can always join, the link is always in the show notes, but I thought that that would be a relevant topic to talk to you all about as well. I figure if people in the group are struggling to get in the word, if they are having stumbling blocks, right, then you might be too.
[00:01:35] And I know that I used to, and we're a lot alike, aren't we? So let's talk about how to study the Bible. Guys, this is an imperative. It is an imperative to live an overcoming life, to live a life of freedom, to live a life of joy, to live a life where you can withstand in the [00:02:00] face of trials. You need to be in the word.
[00:02:04] And you hear me say this over and over and over again. And if you follow me on Instagram, you see me every morning getting into the word, doing my Bible study. Um, and that's not the only time I'm in the word. Um, the work I do has me in the word. Often I write devotions every week for in his image wellness collective.
[00:02:27] I research scripture to bring you our Monday podcast episodes. I write devotions for the Bible app. So I'm in the word, but it didn't always come easily to me. I had a lot of fear about getting into the word. I sometimes felt it was boring. Um, and I want to share with you five tips on what helped me go from someone who was very sporadic [00:03:00]in reading the word to someone who is very consistent in getting into the word.
[00:03:06] And the first thing I want to tell you guys, the number one tip, is to set the right expectation. Set the right expectation. If you are anything like me, and if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are, you probably struggle with your mental health. You probably struggle through some valley seasons.
[00:03:30] Our attention span and our ability to focus doesn't look like everyone else. If you are neurodivergent like me. Our concentration does not look like everyone else. And I think sometimes we look to the neurotypical or we look to people that don't struggle with their mental health, like we do, or aren't on medications like we are, that can give us brain fog.
[00:03:59] And [00:04:00] we try to mimic what their Jesus time looks like. And so maybe we're forcing ourselves to do 30 or 60 minutes in the word. Maybe we're thinking that we need absolute quiet. Um, you know, maybe we're thinking we need this right ambience with candles and everything. And I just want to tell you, put aside what you think it should look like based on what other people are doing.
[00:04:28] And create the Bible time with the right expectations that meet where you're at and your season. And what do I mean by that? If you have trouble with attention and concentration, then setting yourself up for 30 minutes of Bible time might just be setting yourself up for failure. And then what happens when we feel like we're failing something, we stop doing it because we want to stop feeling that way.
[00:04:58] I want to encourage you, though, [00:05:00] to to come up with a different set of expectations, maybe for you. It's just doing 10 minutes of Bible first thing in the morning and 10 minutes of Bible last thing at night, right? Like maybe it looks different. Maybe your mornings are not where you have the most attention.
[00:05:19] So maybe doing 10 minutes at lunch is going to serve you better, right? I want you to set the right expectations based on who you are, where you're at and what season you're in. Okay.
[00:05:32] That's number one. Number two, I want you to approach it with curiosity and excitement. You see, when I first started approaching the Bible and when it was such a struggle, I kind of was approaching it as something I had to do, like to be a good Christian, I had to get into the word.
[00:05:55] It was like a to do list. It was a chore. It was [00:06:00] something that was, I was doing because I thought it was expected of me by others or by God, right? It wasn't coming from a genuine place. And when you, who loves doing chores? Not many of us, not many of us get excited as a thought of doing chores. So when we equate getting into the word as a Christian chore, It is much harder to stay focused.
[00:06:28] It is much harder to get engaged. It is much harder to keep your attention. And I realized I had to switch how I was viewing the word and this is what I did. I started to look at it as this amazing opportunity to get to know the Sovereign God better. I started to look at it as this amazing opportunity.
[00:06:56] To learn more about who he's created me to be and who he [00:07:00] wants to grow me in. I started to look at it as this beautiful exchange between God and me. And so I started to approach Bible study with curiosity and excitement, like what is going to be revealed today? What new thing am I going to learn about God?
[00:07:18] What new thing am I going to learn about myself. How am I going to see Jesus in this text today? I started to approach it with curiosity and excitement. And when you approach something that way, all of a sudden there is an eager anticipation for it. There is more concentration and focus and attention given to it, right?
[00:07:41] Because you're there playing detective, looking for clues, looking to see God, looking to see what message he has for you. And that totally changed the way I approached Bible study.
[00:07:56] Number three, use resources [00:08:00] to help you. And I've said this before, and I don't know if it falls on deaf, deaf ears. You are not expected just to pick up the Bible and necessarily know everything about everything.
[00:08:16] Right? I mean, even our pastors use concordances and other scholarly works in their own study of the word to bring the message. And an example for that, that I shared in the live in the Facebook group was about the study I'm doing personally right now in Jonah 2, Jonah says a prayer. And it's quite poetic and no wonder it's quite poetic because he's actually praying from the Psalms.
[00:08:47] He is taking from the Psalms and praying the scripture on my own. I would have never made that connection and I would not have seen how much, The [00:09:00] prophets and Jesus himself prayed scripture and how important it is in our own life to pray scripture if that connection wasn't made for me, and it was made for me.
[00:09:11] For me through a Bible study resource I was using while going through Jonah. And so I want to encourage you guys to use resources to help you. I use a concordance. I have an expository Bible that gives explanation as I read it. I also right now am loving uh, the daily grace co bible studies. This is not sponsored.
[00:09:36] I just happen to love them. I have like 20 of them. I I bought some this year to take me through 2023 So i'm just wrapping up jonah And going to dive into a new one soon, but I use resources guys. I even have resources for you. If you go on the website, I have three Bible studies and I'll be adding to that, three Bible studies with [00:10:00] you in mind, that person that is just starting out, just beginning to get into the word.
[00:10:06] These Bible studies are meant for the person that's intimidated. To get into the word. So they are a great resource for you. I have one on looking at various women in the word. I have a Bible study on the armor of God. I have a Bible study on the Lord's prayer. I even have a free Bible study on Rahab. So there's resources available to you.
[00:10:31] Go check them out. Um, another resource or a framework that you can use in looking at the Bible is the SOAP method. I don't know if you've heard of it before, but it stands for scripture, observation, application, and prayer. So when you're studying the Bible, focus in on one verse, write that scripture out, observe it.
[00:10:56] Where is there a repetition? Where is there an, [00:11:00] if then, or therefore statement? Cause God often speaks in that way, right? Therefore, you know, if something happens, therefore this will happen. Or if this happens, then this will happen. God often communicates in that way. So look for the, if thens or the therefores look for repetition, observe it, then ask, how can I apply this today? How can I apply this to how I see God? How can I apply this to Christian living and walking out my faith? And then pray, pray over it, pray that God makes that verse come alive in your life.
[00:11:39] Speaking of prayer, that takes me to step four or tip four, pray for insight and understanding. Listen, guys, you are a new creation. You have the mind of Christ. You have the indwelling Holy Spirit. You are not ignorant. God wants you. To [00:12:00] understand his word, God wants to have you journey along with him through the Bible. And he is giving you the Holy Spirit to get insight and understanding. So pray before you open the Bible, pray, Lord God, would you illuminate my eyes?
[00:12:18] Would you illuminate my mind for understanding? Give me Holy Spirit wisdom and discernment. As I look at this piece of scripture, Lord God, I declare that I have the mind of the Christ, and I can understand this and expect to understand it. Don't expect to be confused.
[00:12:37] And then number five, keep going. There are going to be days where your Bible study is like, wow, God showed up. Holy spirit showed up. This is amazing. The revelations are incredible. And then there's going to be days where. You have to reread the same passage over [00:13:00] and over and you have to redirect your thoughts over and over because you start making your grocery list while you're doing it and it may feel fruitless, but it's not.
[00:13:12] Any time spent with Christ is not, so keep going, keep going. And if you are someone who constantly gets interrupted in your thought life, while you're studying the word, I want to give you this bonus tip. This is comes along the lines of taking thoughts captive. And sometimes we think about taking thoughts captive as just the negative thoughts, the lies, and absolutely that relates to that, right?
[00:13:47] But we can also take good thoughts captive that are showing up in inappropriate times. So it's not a bad thought. To think that I need to do my [00:14:00] laundry and I need to empty the garbage It's not a bad thought to start to do your grocery list in your head. It's just not an appropriate time during Bible So what I encourage you to do is to acknowledge the thought right when we try to push away the thought without acknowledging it, it gets persistent.
[00:14:20] Our thoughts want to be acknowledged. That's not the same as agreeing with them. That's not the same as affirming them, but it's just acknowledging them. So I encourage you to be like, I see you thought. It is not the right time. I will get to you later. I see you grocery list. Now is not the time. I will get to you later.
[00:14:42] Lord, help me to refocus on the word. Yes, I know I have to do laundry. Now is not the right time to think about it. I will think about you later. Acknowledge the thought. Let the thought know it's the wrong time, and that you will address it later. [00:15:00] Okay, guys? You can do this. So to recap my four tips on how to get into the word is one set the right expectation for yourself based on who you are in the season of life that you're in to approach it with curiosity and excitement.
[00:15:19] You get to do this. There are parts of the world that don't get to do this, or they do it under fear of death. You get to do this. Get excited, get curious. Three, use resources to help you. They're there for you. Four, pray for insight and understanding. And five, keep going. I want to remind you that the Bible is good.
[00:15:48] It is good. It is living water. It is alive and applicable in any situation you face. [00:16:00] So do not shy away from it. Dive in, guys, dive in. And don't forget to join the Facebook community where I talk on topics like this. A lot and answer your questions. Okay. All right, guys, get into the word be blessed.
[00:16:25] Thanks for joining me today I hope we're already friends on social media, but for not come find me on Instagram @carlaarges or @affirmingtruths. Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye friend