58. How to study the Bible

If you've been overwhelmed, confused, or unsure how to study the Bible, this episode is for you. 

Whitney walks you through a simple, step-by-step approach to Bible study that will help you understand Scripture, apply it to your everyday life, and grow your faith with confidence.

Whether you're brand new to Bible study or looking for a more effective way to spend time in God's Word, you'll leave this episode with practical tools you can start using today.

If You've Been Asking Questions Like:

• How do I study the Bible?
• What should I do when I open my Bible?
• How do I understand what I'm reading in the Bible?
• How do I stay consistent in Bible study?
• What Bible study tools should I use?
• How can I make Bible study feel less overwhelming?
• How do I grow my faith through God's Word?

Then this episode is for you!

What next step are you taking on your Bible study journey?!

1. Bible Study Made Just for You is a 6-week 1:1 coaching program with Whitney where you stop just reading the Bible and start living it out, so you become transformed.

2. The Bible Study Made Simple community is where you learn about the Bible and stay consistent in it, so your faith grows as a Christian woman.

3. The Bible Study Made Simple guide is where you learn what to do every time you read the Bible, so you actually understand it.

4. These are the best Bible study tools on Amazon that will help you start reading the Bible with confidence for free.

5. Follow Whitney on TikTok or Instagram @stepintoboldfaith for simple Bible study tips, encouragement, and practical help to grow in your faith.

Transcript

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How do I actually study the Bible? Or what tools should I use? Or what questions should I ask myself? Or what is an actual step-by-step process that I can follow to actually understand the Bible? So if you've thought any of these things, you are in the right place. I am so happy that you are here. In this episode today, we are going to be going over how to study the Bible. And this is something that anyone could ever do at any level. This isn't something that you have to have practiced in it before or have read the Bible before. You can start doing this right away, and anyone can really benefit from it. So I'm super excited. I know that this is the method that ended up really, really helping me as a Christian woman myself who has read multiple books of the Bible, the entire Old Testament, New Testament, and I'm already at book six of the Old Testament in less than even nine months. So I feel like I have had a lot of practice doing this method. It has really worked for me. I can read the Bible, I can understand it, I can stay consistent with it, I can really keep up with it. And I just love it honestly so much. It's one of my favorite things to do every day is read the Bible. So I again, I'm just so glad that you're here. And so by the end of this episode, you're going to know how to study the Bible too, and all the things that you need in order to do it. So welcome to Step into Bold Faith. This is the podcast for Christian women who want to learn to make Bible study feel simple so it transforms their lives and grows their faith. I am your host, Whitney, a fellow Jesus lover, wife, mama, and your Bible study bestie. And I'm so glad that God brought you here today to learn about the Bible. So at the beginning of my Bible study journey, I used totally different resources, tools, processes than I do now. And those in the past just did not help me very much. I've done a lot of guided studies and things like that. And a lot of times they're great, but it's not actually teaching you to go in and do it yourself, right? It's not teaching you a step-by-step process to be like, hey, these are the tools you need to buy and these are the questions you need to ask yourself. And this is the process and the way you need to do it. So you can actually go in and read it and understand it every time and get something from it and feel like it's impacting your life. So that's really why I created this platform and why God led me to do this because this is really what people need. People don't need just another Bible study where they go and get all the information from somebody else. They need to be able to go and learn it for themselves and actually be able to do it without guided studies. So again, I'm just so happy you're here. These tools, these questions, this process I'm about to take you through, it seriously impacted my life so much. And I've been able to grow my faith and transform my life through the Bible at such a fast rate. God is moving so fast in my life. And I truly believe it's because I spend so much time in the Word. I really pour a lot of energy into learning about it, to spending time with God, to building our relationship. And so this is gonna be just so great today. So let me take you through the five steps that you need in order to study the Bible and not just study the Bible, but actually understand what you are reading. And before we even get into all these steps, make sure to go get a notebook with a pen or a pencil because this is gonna be very step-by-step heavy and you're gonna want to take notes throughout this episode. So make sure to go back if you're in the car, if you're at a workout class or you're doing something right now, make sure to come back to this and take notes the second time you listen to it. But this first time, it's gonna be, it's, it's just gonna be very step-by-step heavy, and you're gonna just learn a lot of actually what to do. So you are gonna wanna take notes. Okay. Those are a lot, that's actually like a caveat I feel like for all of my podcast episodes because I try to make each and every one of these podcast episodes be like a full-length training around something Bible study related. And so you're always gonna want to take notes. You're always gonna want to show up with an open heart and an open mind and be ready to really learn and really do this for yourself and really feel empowered and confident in the way that you're studying the Bible. So we are gonna go into step one. So again, there are five steps today that we're gonna go through. So, step number one, you need to be able to study the Bible by approaching it the right way before you even open it. So, before you even start reading the Bible, you need to prepare your mind, your heart, and your soul. You need to focus connecting with God. You need to practice the right perspective, having patience around what you're learning, understanding that the Bible takes time, that things are going to be revealed to you over time, that you don't want to rush the process or compare yourself to other people. I want you to think about when you go to open your Bible, what do you normally do? And is that process actually working for you? Are you praying before? Do you feel like you have patience for it? Or are you just rushing through it? Do you feel like you have the right perspective, like you're ready to really grow and learn and change from it? If not, write down what's not working and think about flipping the script on the things that aren't working so then you can really start to get the most out of it again before you even open your Bible. So step two is to just start reading the Bible. So make reading the Bible a priority every day, even if it's only five minutes. And if you don't know where to start reading the Bible, go back to my past episode where I talk about how to start reading the Bible and look at that episode and you'll you'll see the whole process that you need to do. But I usually recommend starting with the book of John, starting with the New Testament, and making sure to buy a physical Bible that you love. We're about to get into Bible study tools in a minute, but not the Bible app, but really buy a physical Bible that really, really helps you. So step number three is to use the right study tools and supplemental resources. So having the right tools while you're studying can make Bible study feel so much easier and so and make the Bible just so much better to understand because you're using the right tools. So these can include things like the right physical Bible for you, doing Bible highlighting, doing Bible journaling, using Bible tabs, using books and resources that support your learning, joining a Bible study community, right? So all of these different tools and resources, I do have an amazing resource for you. It's called the Bible Study Made Simple Guide. And within that guide, I list out all of the different tools that you need with links included. So that is in the link to the show notes. But if you want to step it up even more, you need to join the Bible study made simple community because within that community, we are gonna be going over all of these steps. And I'm gonna give you this guide for free within it when you join the community. You are gonna definitely need to join the community if you really are serious about Bible study, if you are serious about growing in your faith, if you need the accountability and the support. And I'm gonna talk about it a little bit more even at the end after we get through all the steps. But I just wanted to mention that right now that if you want to know the exact tools that I use with all of the links included, make sure to get that guide. But even more importantly, make sure to join the community and then you get the guide included for free. But some of these resources are again having the right physical Bible. I mentioned the one that I have that makes it so easy to understand scripture because the language isn't that complicated. The right Bible highlighters that actually will really work within the Bible and not just like bleed through the pages, Bible study tabs to make sure that you can like flip through your Bible and know like what book you're in really quickly and easily. I mentioned having using the Bible handbook by the Daily Grace Company. And it's like this great handbook where you can like learn all the different books of the Bible and then a few more really important books that helped me so, so much. And I even break down how to Bible highlight. So what colors to use for what, using different things that really help you to categorize things within the Bible because Bible highlighting, when you do it, you shouldn't just be randomly highlighting things you that stand out to you. Everything has a method and a system. So each color needs to align with the thing that you're looking for. As an example, yellow for me is characteristics of God, pink is prayers or favorite verses, red is sins to avoid, greens is commands, there are things we need to follow, and so much more. So again, that's all written within that guide. Or when you join the community, you'll see how to do your Bible highlighting. So the again, that was step three. So again, step one was approach the Bible the right way before you even open it. Step two is start reading the Bible the right way. Step three is use the right study tools and supplemental resources. And now we're on to step four, which is understand what you're reading by asking the right questions and digging deeper. So one of the best ways to understand what you read in the Bible is by really asking the right questions. Like I love going through the who, what, where, when, why, how, what's happening, where is this happening? Why is this happening? Who's involved? Why is this important, right? And going through questions like that to actually understand what you're reading and in answering those kind of questions, it's so it sounds so simple, but it is so impactful when you're really trying to learn about the Bible because you can actually really think and process what you're trying to learn. And then step five is to look for what God is revealing through the Bible. So as you read and study, start paying attention to what stands out to you. Start paying attention to what God may be telling, trying to tell you. This includes things like themes that you notice or takeaways that you write down, repeated words or phrases, convictions or encouragement, because God really does speak to us through his word. The word is a mirror for us to see where he wants us to go, how he wants to transform our lives, what we need to start implementing, right? And then as a bonus, step six, we didn't even, this isn't even technically part of Bible study, but it's so important to understanding the Bible. It's actually not just being a hearer of the word, but being a doer of the word and applying the Bible to your daily life to become transformed within your mindset, within your decisions, within your responses. And so it is so, so helpful. So again, step number one was to approach the Bible the right way before you even open it. Step two is to start reading the right Bible in the right way. Step three was to use the right study tools and supplemental resources. Step four is to understand what you're reading by digging deeper and asking the right questions. Step five is to look for what God is revealing to you through the Bible. And that bonus step six was apply the Bible to your life and become transformed. So again, this transformation, it's not something that is gonna happen right away. It takes a lot of time. You have to stay consistent in it, you have to allow it to shape your thoughts and your habits over time. But the more you read it, the more you reflect on it, the more you apply it, the more grounded you're gonna become in biblical truth and you're gonna really start to live out these things. And I already mentioned it a little bit ago, but if you really want the support, the guidance, the accountability to practice these steps, I'd love to invite you into the Bible study made simple community. This is a community for Christian women who want to learn about the Bible, who want to make it a priority, who want to truly understand the Bible, who want to grow in their faith, who want to become transformed as Christian women. So if you are interested in joining this community or learning more, head to the link in the show notes to check it out. I think it's gonna be so great. It's gonna really change, really change so much for you as a Christian woman who is doing Bible study, who's trying to make your faith a priority because we can't do it alone. God designed us to be in community, He wants us to do these things together. So I am again just so excited to be able to have gone through this with you today. And I just realized that I didn't do my action step after each one. So I told you for the first one to really think about step one was to really think about what you're doing before you open your Bible the right way, right? So action step number two would be to start reading the Bible and making sure that you have a physical Bible that you love that you feel really connected to. So think about is my Bible working for me? Do I feel connected to it? Do I feel like I can read it? For step three, do you have the right study tools? Do you have the right resources that are working for you to actually help you understand the Bible? An action step for step four is to see if you can start asking these questions if you're not already with the who, what, where, when, why, how. Step number five is to really see and ask yourself like, do you feel like God is revealing things to you throughout the Bible? And again, for bonus step six, think about am I applying what I'm reading to my daily life? Am I actually growing as a Christian woman? Is my mindset, my decisions, my responses changing because I'm allowing the Bible to do that? So that was just a little recap again and some action steps that you can start taking. So now that we are towards the end of this episode again, I'm just so excited that you are here with me today. I really hope that this got you encouraged and motivated and inspired to start studying the Bible to really feel like you can understand it. And if there are specific questions that you have, go back to some of my past podcast episodes and make sure to be listening to the future podcast episodes. Make sure to follow and subscribe to the show. And I'm just so excited. And again, make sure to join the Bible Study Made Simple community. We would absolutely love to have you. And now let's end in our prayer. God, thank you so much for each and every woman listening to this right now who wants to study the Bible, who wants to grow in your word, who wants to grow their faith, Lord, be speaking to them as they are reading the Bible. Help them become transformed, help them to feel more connected to you, Lord. Help them to see that it is possible for them to understand it no matter where they're starting at. And we just appreciate you and value you and this amazing tool that you've given us. And help us not take it for granted or lightly that we're able to have such a beautiful handbook to follow, to live our lives, to know that we are doing the right things here on earth in order to connect with you and help other people in this world, Lord. Thank you so much in Jesus' name. Amen. So until next time, thank you so much for coming along the journey with me and let's keep stepping into bold faith together. Bye.