Are You Struggling To Understand The Bible? Then Do This!

I could remember reading the Bible with the “One-Year Bible Reading Plan” on my Bible App from 2020 – 2021. But, if I would be sincere with myself and you reading this, I read it like I was reading a storybook. I never understood all I read. The only parts I understood and enjoyed were the story part. In the process of trying to find a way out, I realised so many people out there are struggling with understanding the Bible, so I found out what we were doing wrong and what we need to start doing if we would love to understand the Scripture and find Jesus.

Do This Henceforth!

1. Pray: Before you start studying the Bible, it is important you pray for understanding, Light, Revelation and opened heart. It is because the scripture was written with the help of the Holy Spirit and the same Spirit is needed for understanding.
2. Choose the Easiest Translation: There are numerous Bible translations out there. Hence, it’s important to pick the one easier to read and understand. Often, I find the MSB and ESV easier to read, while some prefer KJV, NLT, etc. Choose your preference.
   Note: Get a Hardcopy Bible, do not read with a phone.
3. Get Reading Tools: You should get your journal, pen, highlighter, Bible Dictionary and Commentary close to you. All of these are needed.
4. Start with a verse or Chapter: You must decide if you’d be going through with reading a chapter at once or if you’d be settling with verse. Whatever you decide leads you to the next point.
5. Read First: Here, you are expected to read without jotting. This is to get a glimpse of what you’re about to study.
6. Study Now: This is the point where you read, pause, jot, underline, highlight, meditate and read out loud for you to hear from God. This takes time.
   1. Pray As You Read
   2. Be Opened to Receive
   3. Share With Others & Discuss

   This has helped me a lot. You can have a friend or a group of friends to do this with. Together, you can share what you’ve learnt from the place you’ve studied and you’d see a new dimension about that place.

7. Devotional Apps: Apps like YouVersion, She Reads Truth, Bible Gateway, etc can help… All you need to do is to search for that particular place you’re stuck on, it’ll bring topics around it.
8. Use SOAP Method:
   Scripture and this is where you Read, then write down the verse that touches you,
   Observe, this has to do with patiently studying through to see what you can learn from it,
   Applying, Here, you are expected to apply what you’ve learnt in your daily life,
   Praying and it’s basically praying with what you’ve read.
9. Meditation: You are expected to keep on meditating, brooding and pondering on what you’ve read as you go about the day. Understanding might come through that meditation and not immediately after you read.
10. Memorize: Don’t just read, you’re expected to study. By studying, you commit some part of it to your memory and it comes in handy when you need to pray or you’re faced with a particular situation.
11. Quiet place: There is noise everywhere, so you can best hear God when your heart and environment are still. This is why you’re expected to pick a time that works best for you. It could be the first thing when you wake up in the morning or late at night.
12. Don’t be so quick to turn the pages: It might take you staying on a particular chapter, verse or book for days, weeks or months. So don’t be so quick to read another verse or chapter. You don’t need to get it right in just a single day.
13. Do it daily: Even when understanding doesn’t come, keep studying daily, and keep showing up. It is like not having customers at your shop, yet you keep opening the stall, sooner or later, you’ll get a buyer. Hence, sooner or later as you persevere without getting discouraged, understanding will come.

CONCLUSION

Struggling with understanding the Bible is real just as the way understanding it is real. However, it saddens the heart that a lot of people want to understand it through their light, while some aren’t willing to put in the time and sacrifice needed, Others are only after reading just to fulfil all righteousness. They don’t study.

Studying might take you 30 minutes or even hours. Although, I would advise that you start small as you’re given grace.

Apply those tips shared above and there would be changes God’s willing. Amen