This morning I was teaching Mikayla my 7th grader how to study God's word using the 3 pt. method. I learned how to "hear God's voice" in my personal quiet time years ago through a wonderful community bible study me and my kids were involved in. I will be forever grateful for those years of training & giving me the "tools" I needed at that time to dig deep for myself. There comes a time in your walk with the Lord that you must begin to wean yourself off the milk and begin to feed yourself solid food. If you always rely on the pastor, teacher or small group leader to feed you, your spiritual growth will be stunted to say the least.
We were comparing God's word to a seed & discussing how a seed needs to be planted in nutrient rich soil, given fresh water and sunlight for it to take root and begin to spout. There are many ways for a plant to begin to grow roots and to sprout but eventually to produce fruit or flowers they need to be transplanted outside at the right time to get the appropriate amounts of nutrients, water and sunlight. So what does that have to do with teaching a child bible study? It's the same way with our spiritual growth or the study of God's word. There are many ways to study God's word. No one method is better than another, it just depends on where you are in your walk with the Lord. A baby christian needs to be nurtured and taught how to drink the milk of God's word before they begin to cut their teeth on the meat. Discipleship takes patience and shoving a 7 course meal down the throat of a baby could cause them to choke. Growing in God's word should be a delight. We should look forward to eating God's word one course at a time. Precept upon precept. Line upon line. The more mature believer. One who by practice has learned to dig deep into the word of God should be patient, gentle and not push a baby believer to grow up too fast.
What I have learned over the years of studying God's word is that doing the same old method can get really boring, dry and quite frankly make studying God's word a drudgery instead of a joy. God's word is not dull but the way we go about digging can get old. The important thing is we are in God's word, digging deeper and deeper so our roots are deep in Christ. So, I guess what I am trying to say is that it's not the method as much as the message we should be concerned with. If we get STUCK on one method of "how to study the bible" we could miss out on the joy and pleasure of studying God's word. It should not feel like a chore but something we look forward to.
Jesus said in John 8:31 - If you continue in my Word, then you will truly be my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. I spent years in "bondage" to one way of digging into God's word. That is not god's design for my life. So if you are getting bored or feel like a prisoner to one style of bible study I challenge you to get alone with your bible, pick a book to go through consistently . Grab a notebook and have pen poised and ready; ask God to speak to you through His word. When you read don't forget to put on your 3-D glasses. Get into the story, look at who is speaking, the audience they were speaking to, look for names of God and lessons he is trying to teach you today in 2012.
I promise God's word never disappoints!
Renee
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