Psalm 119:37 Turn away my eyes from seeing vanity; in Your way give me life.
The most difficult part of bible study is applying, what you have discovered, in your daily life. Too many people read the bible, think about what they have read for a few seconds, pray, close the bible and carry on with their life in the exact same way as before. The bible study remains an intellectual pursuit not applied in real life. You may well wonder why?
The reason can be any, or all, of the following:
1. It may require too much thinking of you. To be able to apply what you have read and studied, often requires you to ponder and meditate on it for quite a bit. It usually takes time for any of us to really understand what it is that God, through the Holy Spirit, is saying to us. We have to, prayerfully, think about it. Sometimes we have to dig deep into a piece of scripture that may appear very old fashioned to us. We have to learn to look beyond the cultural differences to discover what it is God wants to teach us. This takes time and concentration, something we have very little of in our modern, busy, lives.
2. Another very important reason is that Satan is trying to prevent us from discovering what it is God is trying to tell us. Satan uses our quiet time, when we are doing bible study, to tempt us, the time we are trying to apply scripture to our lives. He is very happy as long as our bible study remains knowledge that we have in our heads, knowledge that we are not applying to our lives. He knows that as long as our conscience is at ease, that we feel we have done what is expected of us, we will not think of our bible study any further, and carry on with our lives as normal.
3. Now I get to the most important reason why we battle to apply our bible study to our lives. It is difficult to change our lives. That is the most important reason why the problems of the previous two points appear. We do not want to change our lives; it is much easier to carry on as always. It may even be embarrassing to make a complete change in the way we live. People may ask questions, and doubt our intentions, and that is embarrassing.
4. We all tend to live by our emotions and not by willpower. It is very easy to say that we do not feel like bible study today, or, that we do not feel like praying at the moment. Fact is, the moment we have these feelings, we should know that our bible study and our prayers are long overdue. If we are living a life close to God, we shall feel the need for bible study and we shall feel the need to pray. I know, that is not as easy and as simple as it sounds! We should not be lead by our emotions. Living close to God is a decision of the mind. Let us all make that decision today.
The key to Christian living is not to do it because we are good but, because:
a) It is the right choice.
b) God expects it of us.
c) It is the way to grow spiritually and to reach spiritual maturity.
d) It is the only way to permanent stability in our Christian life.
Additional readings:
1 Peter 3-5
Mark 5:31-43
Psalm 119:65-72
Proverbs 17:23-26
Magriet is a work at home “Gran” with websites on family related matters. Visit her site about Kids Crafts that is very related to homeschooling at http://www.kidscrafts.topknacks.com You can also visit her fun website with easy science projects ideal for the homeschooler at http://www.learnerscience.com
