Bible Study Tools and Tips

1st Tip: Prayer

Prayer is key to unlocking the treasures hidden in God’s Word. We must talk with God daily, exposing to him what is in our hearts ( minds ). Many pray asking only to receive but prayer is much more than that. Prayer should always start with thanksgiving, thanking God for what he would have done for us. This helps us to remember and be grateful for his many blessings. Talk with God also about our defects in character, not others, our own, itemize them before the Lord, tell him what they are, and ask him for his strength, to overcome them. This keeps us humble never exalting ourselves above others. Bring before God, the challenges we face, a situation where we were embarrassed or disappointed, a decision that we have to make, someone that is giving us a hard time, a particular thing we may desire, whatever it may be, pour out our heart to the Lord. Pray for someone else’s well-being, ask God for His Spirit to guide us, and pray for understanding in God’s Word. In public places, our prayer should be short and pointed or specific to what we were asked to pray for but in our quiet time, we can talk to God.

Yes, I know that we are talking about Bible study, but prayer strengthens our spiritual life and our connection to God. Our Bible study will grow immensely, so pray daily.

Note — Before we study, a short prayer asking God to help us understand a particular passage, verse, thought or idea is more effective than just asking God, “ help me while I study ”. In other words, don’t be vague, be specific. Ask also for the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth.

2nd Tip: Time

The first thing we must consider when preparing to study our Bible is time. We must cut out quality time from our busy schedules to study God’s Word. We should not study when we are tired or sleepy or leave it to the times when we have “ nothing to do ”, ( if, anyone has those these days ). We can start with just 30 minutes and stick to it. As we progress we can increase the time, but don’t set too ambitious a target that you cannot sustain it. Try to be as regular as you can. If you cannot do it every day as yet ( this should be your aim ), try to study at least four days a week.

Note — This is going to call for great sacrifice but if we want to know what God has stored in his Word, casual reading is not enough. We must grow into a deeper study of God’s Word and that requires time. Listening to someone preach the Word is not enough, you must know God personally, and you must have your own experience.

3rd Tip: A quiet place

This may be challenging depending on where you live. Some live close to the airport or subway or train, but try to get into a place where you can think without being distracted.

This helps when studying God’s Word. Take off the music even if it’s gospel music, ( you can listen to it before if you like ), you don’t want to have anything competing with your thoughts. God’s Word is precious and it should occupy 100% of your thoughts when you decide to study for the time allotted.

4th Tip: Be specific on what you want to study

Whatever you choose to study you must have clear goals. If you’re studying Psalm 23, then tackle it one verse at a time, and don’t move on until you understand it. So for a particular session, you have marked out Psalm 23 vs. 1, then stick to that. It may take you a couple of sessions to get to the true meaning but don’t worry that’s why it’s called Bible study.

5th Tip: Have a dedicated notebook

Many of us don’t have the best memory, so write down what we have received from God’s Word, we can always go back to it later. God may at a later stage refine our understanding and we may have to update what we would have written. I know that we have modern devices, that can do much more than a notebook, which we can use, no objections to that but they all require electrical power and if they are not charged they are useless. A handy notebook is always available.

Tools we can use

I call them tools, you may call them something else that’s fine. The idea is that they can help us understand God’s Word.

A Center Column

A Bible with a center column helps us to link verses with similar thoughts or ideas together. This is helpful if we are studying a verse that introduces a confusing concept, but another verse can describe the same idea or thought more simply.

A Concordance

A Concordance which can be found on the back of many Bibles is also very helpful. It gives us a scriptural index of words and the verses that contain them. So if we want to know what is God’s position on death, we can go to the concordance look up the word death and see many verses where it is mentioned. We can then compare each verse and get a clearer understanding of the Bible’s position rather than one verse that supports what is convenient to us. You can also buy a Bible concordance that is separate from your Bible which is going to be very extensive in its listing. One such concordance is Strong’s concordance.

An Interlinear

This is a very helpful tool and an advanced one, but I thought it was worth mentioning. An interlinear gives us the exact meaning of every Hebrew and Greek word used in the original translation.

There is an Interlinear tool online called the Blue Letter Bible. I have used it and I find it very helpful. It is an advanced tool in my opinion so I would not recommend starting with it but it’s good to know that it exists.

In another article, I can go into it more in-depth. Feel free to check it out if you wish.

Conclusion of the Matter

Many tools are available that can help you study God’s Word. I’ve listed the ones that I believe are enough to get you started. The tips listed are also not exhaustive and so you may develop some of your own.

It may seem like a lot, but don’t be intimidated by it. Take it one step at a time, prayerfully asking God to guide you all the way.

Make no mistake, Bible Study will tax your brain, but if you push through, it will strengthen your mind. It will bring you to a better understanding of who God is and what his plan is for your life.

Start Your Bible Study Journey Today. Enjoy!