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- Herausgeber: IVP Bible Studies
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: LifeGuide Bible Studies
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
Reading the Bible is one of the most important spiritual disciplines we can engage in. Why is Bible study so significant? How can our attitude and approach affect what we get out of our reading? The way we approach the Bible affects our interaction with God. Learning to immerse ourselves in God's thoughts through study and meditation allows us to go deeper into God's Word and live in a more Christlike way. This six-session LifeGuide® Bible Study from Jan Johnson helps us do just that.For over three decades LifeGuide Bible Studies have provided solid biblical content and raised thought-provoking questions—making for a one-of-a-kind Bible study experience for individuals and groups. This series has more than 130 titles on Old and New Testament books, character studies, and topical studies.
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STUDY & MEDITATION
6 STUDIES FOR INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS
CONTENTS
ONE
Immersing Yourself in God’s Thoughts.deuteronomy 6:1-9
TWO
Reading and Responding to ScriptureNehemiah 8:1-18; 9:1-3, 38
THREE
Comprehending God’s TruthIsaiah 11:1-9
FOUR
Meditation and ObediencePsalm 119:97-104
FIVE
A Biblical ModelLuke 1:46-55; 1 Samuel 2:1-10
SIX
Entering a Gospel SceneMark 10:17-23
GETTING THE MOST OUT OFSTUDY & MEDITATION
Have you ever wondered how God changes people? Maybe it seems as if old habits never change no matter how hard you try. Maybe you’ve become discouraged with your lack of growth into Christlikeness. You know that you are forgiven through Jesus’ suffering on the cross, and you realize that you are totally accepted by God on that basis. This is wonderful. And yet your desire to live in a way that pleases God somehow constantly falls short of the mark.
God desires to transform our souls. This transformation occurs as we recognize that God created us to live in an interactive relationship with the Trinity. Our task is not to transform ourselves but to stay connected with God in as much of life as possible. As we pay attention to the nudges of the Holy Spirit, we become disciples of Christ. Our task is to do the connecting, while God does the perfecting.
As we connect with God, we gradually begin acting more like Christ. We become more likely to weep over our enemies instead of discrediting them. We’re more likely to give up power instead of taking control. We’re more likely to point out another’s successes rather than grab the credit. Connecting with God changes us on the inside, and we slowly become the tenderhearted, conscientious people our families always wished we’d become. This transformation of our souls through the work of the Holy Spirit results in “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
God does in us what we cannot do by trying to be good. Trying to be good generally makes us obnoxious because it’s so obvious that we’re only trying. The goodness doesn’t come from within ourselves. When we do succeed at being good, we subtly look down on those who don’t do as well. Either way, we remain focused on self instead of on setting our hearts on things above.
Connecting with God, then, is important. But what does connecting with God look like? Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we copy Jesus in behind-the-scenes everyday activities he did to connect with God. As we let these activities become habits, we slowly become trained to have the heart of Christ and behave as he did. These activities are spiritual disciplines, also called spiritual exercises or strategies.
HOW SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES WORK
We connect with God through spiritual disciplines or exercises. Study and meditation, the topics of these Bible studies, are two of them. Other disciplines include solitude, silence, worship, celebration, prayer, listening, service, secrecy, reflection, confession, fasting, simplicity, community, and submission. These exercises are studied in the other LifeGuide Bible Studies. Still other disciplines can be used, some of which are written about in the classics of the faith and others God will show you. Henri Nouwen said that a spiritual discipline is anything that helps us practice “how to become attentive to that small voice and willing to respond when we hear it.”1
How do spiritual disciplines help us connect with God?
They build our relationship with God as we acquaint ourselves with the ways of God. (It’s possible, of course, to do these disciplines in a legalistic way and never bond with Christ.)
They build our trust in Christ. Some of the disciplines are uncomfortable. You have to go out on a limb. You try fasting, and you don’t die. You serve someone, and it turns out to be fun and enriching.
They force us to make little decisions that multiply. Your little decision to abstain from watching a television show helps you to deny yourself and love others in all sorts of ways.
They reorganize our impulses so that obedience is more natural. For example, if you have a spiritual discipline of practicing the presence of God, you may learn to automatically pray the breath prayer “Into Thy Hands” when someone opposes you. Without your realizing it, your opponent is no longer an adversary but a person God is dealing with or perhaps even speaking through in some way.
They help us eventually behave like Christ—but this is by God’s miraculous work, not our direct effort.
They teach us to trust that God will do the work in our inner being through the power of the Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). Your spirituality is not about you; it’s the work of God in you. You get to cooperate in God’s “family business” of transforming the world.
HOW WE GET SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES WRONG
Spiritual exercises must be done with the goal of connecting, not for any sake of their own or any desire to check them off a list of to-do items. If you read your Bible just to get it done or because you’ve heard this will help you have a better day, you’ll be anxious to complete the Bible study questions or to get to the bottom of the page of today’s reading. But if your goal in Bible reading is to connect with God, you may pause whenever you sense God speaking to you. You’ll stop and meditate on it. You may pray certain phrases back to God, indicating your needs or your wishes or your questions. You may choose to read that passage day after day for a month because God keeps using it to speak to you.
After such a session, you will have a stronger desire to connect with God. That little choice you made to connect will leave you slightly different for life.
The exercise or discipline is beneficial because it helps you practice connecting with God. If you want to play the piano well or swing a tennis racket well, you have to practice certain exercises over and over. Good baseball players train behind-the-scenes by practicing their batting day after day, with no crowds watching. That’s what spiritual disciplines or exercises are about. If you can hear God in Bible study and meditation, you’ll more likely hear God in a board meeting or an altercation with a recalcitrant teen when passions run high. In life with God, we get good at connecting on an everyday basis by devoting time to developing the skills needed.
THE DISCIPLINES OF BIBLE STUDY AND MEDITATION
The techniques of Bible study are familiar to many—observing the facts of Scripture, interpreting it in light of its historical and biblical context, and thinking of ways to put it into practice. Meditation on Scripture, however, is very different. Here’s a comparison.
In the study method, you . . .
In the meditation method, you . . .
dissect the text
savor the text and enter into it
ask questions about the text
let the text ask questions of you
read and compare facts and new ways
read to let God speak to you (in light of facts already established)2
apply facts
The Bible doesn’t instruct us on how to meditate for the same reason it doesn’t instruct us on how to fast. These were common spiritual disciplines of the day that folks already knew how to do, or they knew other folks who did. Through the ages, the mechanics of meditation have been kept alive mostly through monastic communities. The two most common methods of meditation are presented in sessions five and six.
Bible study is an excellent way of setting oneself up for meditation because through it you come to understand the main point of the Scripture. Still, study does not rule meditation. God may help you choose an obscure word in the passage to ponder or point out a sideline character for you to identify with. Each time you meditate on the passage, it’s likely to be different because you will be in a different set of circumstances.
USING THESE STUDIES IN RETREATS
These studies work well for an individual taking a personal retreat. Simply do the studies at your own pace, and do not rush them. Allow enough time to do the transformation exercises as well. Don’t feel you have to do all the studies. In fact, you may wish to focus only on one discipline and use only those studies.
A group wishing to explore certain disciplines can also use one of these studies the same way. Be sure to allow time for participants to do the transformation exercises. Some exercises may be done as a group. Others may be done individually, with group members reporting back to each other about how they heard God during the exercise.
