Listening To God Through his Word, Part 2

05 Aug Listening To God Through his Word, Part 2

Based on Part 2 of Be Still My Soul

Some of the most joyful and meaningful hours of my life have been spent reading God’s word, listening to Him guide my life and speak to my heart. Psalm 119:105 tells us, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” We need His Word to direct our steps and light our way!

There are many ways to dig into God’s word—in this article, we will touch on a few different strategies. Many people choose to study one book of the Bible at a time, or even just one chapter or section. If a particular chapter, section, paragraph, or verse is really speaking to you, you may want to “hang out” in it for several days, allowing the subtle nuances and deeper messages to more fully sink into your heart. You can dig deeper into the verse using a concordance or an online Bible study tool like blueletterbible.org. 

We can also focus on one character in the Bible, studying the ways God helped them in their challenges, weaknesses,and failures. Seeing God’s grace and guidance at work in others’ lives gives us confidence that God will also graciously help us as well!

Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you studyspecific passages:

Is there a promise to claim?

Is there a command to obey and a sin to avoid?

Is there a teaching about God, Jesus, or the Holy Spiritthat I need to believe?

It is also helpful to study particular topics in scripture. Here are a few topics that have had a profound impact on my heart:

The love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God

The wonderful life and sacrifice of Jesus.

Jesus’ call to love one another, which shows this world that we are truly His disciples and that God, who loved Jesus, also loves us all.

The blessing that God not only forgave us when we were born again, but continues to do so when we fall short: “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10)

Since Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, He can help us when we come to him in our times of temptation:  “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Be Still My Soul is a book to inspire greater growth and depth in your walk with God. It can be purchased from ipibooks.com.