Is This For Me?
Have you ever wanted to read the Bible from start to finish without the confusion, without it coming across as boring? In a moment of temptation or weakness, have you ever wished you had the courage and endurance to do the right thing? When you feel disappointed or hurt, do you ever wish you could choose joy and forgiveness instead of grudges and melancholy? Then this is a study for you! With a pattern of poor choices and the pain from your past playing against you, have you ever wanted to live a transformed life that comes from being fully informed of the Truth and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit into a new creation? Do you want to unleash the power of God’s promises in your life through prayer and have an ear for the Holy Spirit’s leading in your life? Then this is a study for you!
The Bible is for you. You CAN read it and you CAN understand it.
And I can help! If you’re new to reading the Bible, this journey is going to change your life like nothing ever before! If you’ve dabbled in the bible and found yourself scratching your head over the language, details, parables, and stories, I can help! If you’ve tried Church, slid into your seat with the best of intentions, and still felt yourself nodding off to what sounds like ancient text, then I hope to help you find your place in the scriptures.
This Bible study exists to help people read the Bible, apply the Bible, pray the Bible, and stay in the Bible.
Why Study The Bible?
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who knows their Bible, is guided by it, and when the tensions of life squeeze or tragedy strikes, they have a supernatural joy in all circumstances, a strength to stand in the face of opposition, and simultaneously kneel at the feet of Jesus? They have a flow in their life. They seem to have favor all surrounding them to not just survive, but actually thrive in the tough times.
Reading the Bible is fundamental to living the Christian faith. We cannot claim to believe in God and love Him while living in disobedience to His commands. This isn’t about loving what God can do for me. This is about loving Him, Lord of all. Loving God means loving His Word, reading His Word, which is God. Loving God is doing His Word, which brings more understanding of scripture.
We Must Be Armed At All Times
We’re fighting a spiritual war every single day.
By incorporating the habits of reading, applying, and praying the Word of God in our lives, we can change the world around us. When we learn what the Word of our Creator, Almighty God, says, it exposes the enemy’s lies. We can live with more confidence because we can identify who the real enemy is that we are fighting against. We can live free from false saviors that turn into addictions, fake identities that hide who God created us to be, and idol worship that distracts and disorients us to focus on our feelings rather than the Truth. By reading the Bible, applying it, and praying it, our desires are reordered according to what God says. Equipped with the Truth, we can teach our children and encourage them to live their best lives led by God.
The word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, changes hearts, changes trajectories, and changes generations.
In this spiritual war we are fighting, we are called to put on the spiritual armor every day to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. This spiritual armor includes picking up the word of God, which is our sword in the fight.
If we’re not reading our Bible, we don’t have a sword in the fight, which is the only offensive weapon we’re given here. Without our Sword, we are aimlessly entering the day, slinging at every distraction the enemy throws our way. We need the Word of God to cut to the heart of this spiritual battle we are living in.
God – Our First Love
We want the entire Bible to pulse in the muscle memory of our hearts. We want to know the heart of God. And by knowing the heart of God, we can better discern when the devil is speaking to us through sinful desires and lies. When we read our Bibles, we will know when it’s God speaking because we will know His heart, and His voice will never contradict His Word.
When we know the heart of God, we will better know how to use the Word of God.
We can profess to follow the teachings of Jesus, admire His words, frame His quotes, and model our ethics after Him, yet still not be in a relationship with Him. And why does that matter? When you love someone, you want to be connected to them. You want to please them out of this love. You have respect for those you love and even obey them. If you don’t love God, you won’t connect with Him in His Word. And if you’re not connected with Him, when a fleeting moment of pleasure serves your flesh, the disordered desires will have you obeying whatever feels good over the Father.
What You’ll Get Here
Bible Reading
These are bite-sized Bible studies to help you find a daily rhythm of reading, soaking, applying, and praying scripture personally. This one discipline will direct your decisions for the day. From memory and from your meditations throughout the day, the Word of God will lead your thoughts, attitude, words, and actions.
Application
The Truth will shape your worldly perspectives and set you free from what holds you back from living the gospel message. When pressure presents itself, you will be girded with the confidence to walk in fierce courage and endure suffering for all the possibilities that it may help someone else get free from the slavery to sin. Your desire for the Truth will grow deeper and richer every time you endure opposition and persevere through the pain.
We don’t need a theological degree to understand the Word of God. He gives us the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to receive and understand His revelations when we lean into Him and obey.
These studies do not encompass all that you can or should take from scripture. We serve an infinite God who is continually revealing the mysteries of His Word to us, day after day, in season after season. He brings us closer, and takes us deeper, and deeper still. He allows us the privilege of drinking deep of His refreshing Word daily. Don’t worry about tomorrow, His Word will renew our thinking, mature us, and transform our mindset even more to become more like His. This journey of being a student in the scriptures never ends. As long as we have breath, there will always be a deeper still.
Praying the Power in the Word
Prayer is more than asking for requests or thanking God. Prayer is reverence and faith in action. Prayer is a thoughtful, hopeful, thankful declaration of what we believe. When we pray the word of God, we are unleashing the power of heaven here on earth. We want to pray through what we read every day. Each study ends with prayer prompts to help in your journey of reading, applying, praying, and teaching scripture. This will disarm what feels so difficult about praying God’s Word every single day.
Helping You Sow the Seeds
When we read our Bible, believe the Bible, live according to the Bible, pray by faith what the Bible says, and keep our minds stayed in the Bible through our meditations and thoughts throughout the day, then sharing the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit with others will come from the natural overflow of a life centered on scripture.
Just Getting Started: What You Need
We want to discuss the key ideas, consider the context, including the author, setting, and the era. With some context and perspective, we can then apply what we are reading to our lives. The Bible studies here are fairly short, providing spiritual nourishment to encourage slowing down, listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice, and applying all of Scripture to our lives. We’re not trying to rush through to check chapters off on our list or cherry-pick the memory verses. We have a purposeful God. Every bit of scripture has purpose, and we want to be purposeful in reflecting and receiving revelation from God in it all.
A Friend
It’s hard to start new things. It’s even harder to stick with it in the confusion, when it sounds repetitive, or we’re just plain tired. Having a friend in the journey can help you stay focused on the goal and encourage you or reframe your feelings when you want to give up. Hi! I’m Trisha! I want to be that friend. Through my own experience of reading, applying, praying by faith, living it, and teaching the Word, I hope to help shine a light in the dark places and point the way to freedom and Hope in Christ alone.
Bible and Journal
The bible is written in many translations, which are simply languages that all tell the same story. Someone from New York has a way of speaking that is different from someone in California, Italy, or Kenya. The New Living Translation (NLT) Bible is the closest to modern day language and will be easier to read and study for beginners. It’s helpful to have a journal or notebook and a highlighter. You can highlight the verses that you want to remember. In the journal, you can write out the verses, your observations, thoughts, applications, and a prayer over your life. I’ll also include a portion to teach children what we read.
Alright, are you ready to get reading and begin living the transformed life in the Word of God?! Let’s do this!