Digging in to the Soil of Scripture

“Read your Bible, pray every day,

Pray every day,

Pray every day.

Read your Bible, pray every day,

And you’ll grow, grow, grow.”

We all know the song by heart, right? It’s a favorite for children’s church classes across the

country (and maybe across the globe!).

It is clear that reading our Bibles is so important and necessary for spiritual growth.

But when it comes to discipling new believers, we just tell them, “You need to have quiet time with God every day,” and expect them to know what to do. We preach to them about the Bible being God’s love letter to them, and then we leave them to fend for themselves.

Maybe you don’t even know how to teach someone else how to study their Bible. And maybe you don’t know how to study it yourself.

There are really two main methods of personal Bible study: inductive and deductive.

Let’s start with deductive Bible study. This is essentially taking a broad principle you already believe, and then finding Scripture to support it. For example, we believe that murder—including abortion—is wrong. But what does Scripture say about it? So we could come to a good understanding of some things. But not every topic will lend itself to this method of study, and there is a fundamental issue with this. If the premise upon which the study is built is wrong, then it’s easy to twist the Bible to fit the premise. This method of Bible study can lead to a lack of growth, and even some spiritual “shrinking,” because it does not make the student change his thinking to align with God’s Word.

Then, we have inductive Bible Study. This method takes what the Bible already says, and then applies it to life (rather than applying life to the Bible). Do you see the difference? This method of study teaches the student what the Bible says, so that they can begin the process of changing to become more like the Author of the Bible.

Within the realm of inductive Bible Study, we can further narrow down to a practical level of personal study. Two methods would include “trowel” or “plow” studies.

A trowel study is the idea of taking a smaller passage of Scripture, and digging deep—like you would till soil with a trowel—to learn what the passage is saying and to apply it to one’s life. For example, a couple of years ago, my ladies’ Bible study group did a trowel study on the book of Titus. We took a paragraph at a time, looked up and defined words, and dug deep to find out what each passage was saying in layman's terms.

Plow studies take a broader section of Scripture, or a specific topic, and skims over the material, much like a plow does over a large piece of land. An example of this would be reading through the Bible in a year. Another would be a study on the character of God throughout the New Testament. Still another could be on the genre of poetry in the Bible.

For both kinds of study, there are many possibly helpful tools.

First, a concordance. This is a book which has every word in the English Bible defined and explained, so that we can understand what the original Hebrew or Greek author was trying to say. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is possibly the most common and well-known concordance. Personally, I prefer to use the website or app Blue Letter Bible. It’s much easier to get on my phone or laptop than it is to pull out a huge book to look up a word. I use concordances a lot for trowel studies, or for plow studies on a specific topic (such as the character of God).

Second, Bible commentaries or study Bibles. Commentaries are written by men or women with much more theological training than most believers will ever have, and study Bibles have commentary right alongside the Scripture in the same book. These are not inspired works, and not at the level of Scripture, but they can be extremely helpful tools, although it is still important to compare these with Scripture to make sure they are accurate. Blue Letter Bible has several commentaries available, written by several different authors (and these are free to the public). In college, our Bible professors used the New American Commentary series, which has a different volume for each book of the Bible. Your pastor probably will have some other suggestions, too.

Third, sermons and podcasts. These can be extremely helpful resources. Of course, just like commentaries, it is important to make sure these resources are biblically accurate and that they align with what the Scripture says. But again, it can be helpful to hear what someone has already learned from the passage you are studying. And listening can also help with meditating on what you are already learning, as you go about everyday activities. One good podcast is the ThinkBible Podcast! Also, Blue Letter Bible has several sermons recorded on audio, available to the public. Most churches nowadays have sermons recorded live and saved on their websites. Another option is Christian colleges, which often have chapel sermons live-streamed.

Bible Study does not have to be a daunting task, but consistency is key. It’s so important to have a plan. For me, that plan includes a place (right now, my bed), that is within easy access of my tools (the Blue Letter Bible App, colorful pens, highlighters, a journal, and my Bible). I also try to have an idea of what I’m going to do each day. At the moment, I’m doing a plow study, trying to read through the Bible in a year, taking note of how God interacts with people and why He chooses to act in certain ways at certain times. Last year, I trowel studied the books of Job, First John, and Genesis in depth, verse by verse.

One more thing that may be helpful is to have an accountability partner – someone who will ask you questions and help you stay on track with growing your relationship with God through His Word.

We all know that personal Bible study is important. Maybe this post will help you get past the daunting task of getting started. I pray that these ideas will encourage you to dig in—with plow or trowel—to your Bible today.

Sarah Lingle lives with her husband of 3 years in the mountains of North Carolina. She stays busy teaching prenatal classes at a pregnancy care center, assisting families as a birth and bereavement doula, and serving in church ministries.

In her free time, Sarah loves exploring God's creation with her husband or curling up with a good book and a hot mug of tea.