How to Actually Apply Your Bible Study to Your Life
Why Bible Study Application Feels So Intimidating
Raise your hand if you can relate…
A friend sparks a reminder of a verse you read in your Bible study this week, but you can’t remember it well enough to quote it.
You remember your Bible study said….something, about being “in the world but not of the world,” but you have no idea where it was or what the context might have been.
It seems like all your Christian friends can reference a verse (location included!) off the cuff and you feel so intimidated and behind.
Friend, you’re not alone. You don’t love Jesus any less because you don’t have all the words memorized or sport a Bible Scholar badge from your childhood youth program. Despite what some would have you believe, Bible study application isn’t intuitive. It takes time to learn and tools to master (spoiler alert, there’s no such thing as Bible study mastery!)
That said, Bible study application is an invaluable skill and necessary component of defending your faith. If, when you study the Word and walk away without repeating to yourself the whole of what you read and what it meant, it is not applicable. If I read something interesting but it stays a footnote in my Bible, the insight isn’t livable. So, I wanted to give you a practical “Bible study application” guide, to walk you through the simple steps of making the Living Word actually livable in your day-to-day.
If we haven’t met before, my name is Kate. I’m a B.S. in Public Communications and ministry leader at Faith Church in Florence, AL. I’ve spent the past decade learning what it means to study the Bible, its original language, and the overall narrative each story ties back to. As a volunteer director and service host, I have the opportunity of teaching my learnings with new believers and seasoned veterans of the faith, as well as hundreds of new faces through various women’s conferences. It’s my mission in life to put words to our felt needs and point them back to God’s glory, but I can only do that through relationship with you. Let’s dive in, shall we?
3 Simple Ways to Recall What You’ve Read
How many times have you caught yourself reading a story, only to go about your day and forgetting most of what you read by the time the day ends? You might remember one statement that stuck with you, or remember the gist of the message, but somewhere between school drop-off and the bedtime routine, some key information has fallen out of your head. It happens! The part of your brain that woke up at 6am for Bible study with you was your hippocampus— the part that learns new information and creates new memory. The basal ganglia, on the other hand, helped you make your coffee and hit snooze. The basal ganglia is responsible for turning repeated actions into automatic habits.
What I’m saying is, you’re waking up and engaging one part of your brain, while handing off the rest of your day to the other. It’s no wonder they’re hit-or-miss in memory retention. It’s our job to marry the two with intentional practice. Here are three simple ways to recall what you’ve read:
I. Ask yourself who the key players and places are.
Who is speaking, in this passage? Who is the audience? Where is the story taking place, and why does that matter? Learning the context of the story helps your brain remember why it matters that it happened.
II. Give it an “elevator pitch” before walking away.
If you wanted to share this text with a friend right now, how would you summarize the story in 3-5 sentences? Don’t forget to include the major takeaway and why they should care. Craft the pitch and repeat it to yourself, journal it, say it out loud before you leave this setting.
III. Immediately incorporate it into prayer.
Go to God with what you’ve learned and build it into conversation with Him. In my previous post, one way I could incorporate my study of the Prodigal Son parable into my prayers would be to ask God to remind me how slippery the slope is between good cravings (independence and responsibility) and riotous living. I can thank Him for his generosity and grace, in the ways He forgives me and clothes me like a Son. All my inclusions will wake up that sleeping ganglia and train it to think, “This is important, we are building this into our memory.”
Questions to Ask Yourself When Reading a Passage
Now that we’re learning to remember what we’ve read in our Bible study, it’s time to do the work of living it out. Ask yourself these questions if you want to turn information into application:
I. What problem or need do I see that this speaks to?
I previously wrote “God Can Use You Where You Are,” drawing on the idea of discontent where we are placed. I connected John 1:46 (“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”) to the booming ministry of commonplace Capernaum. The problem I sought to address was, “We assume adventure is out there, never right here.”
II. What truth does God want me to remember about this Word in light of my experience?
What is God trying to teach you in the passage about the world’s problems, at large? How does Biblical truth answer timeless questions in culture? In the above mentioned post, the answer to the problem of “Can anything good happen, here?” is a resounding, “God can use you, right where you are.” What would God have you remember about what you’ve read today the next time you experience the problems related to it?
III. Fill in the blanks:
When I see (circumstance in your/others’ world),
God wants me to (action),
so that (outcome/change).
In this post, I wrote about the urgency with which God calls us to preach the gospel. He made it clear to the the 72 disciples that He wanted them to act quickly, not leisurely, in winning souls for the Kingdom. In this case, the above statement from Luke 10 could read:
“When I see myself getting too comfortable in Christian culture, God wants me to refocus my energy on His mission, so that the lost can be reached more passionately and effectively.”
Like I said earlier, Bible study application isn’t always intuitive. It takes work and more patience than I often give, on instinct. In order to train my mind to retain what I have read and make it a livable practice, I must teach it to myself through repetition and thorough application.
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Happy studying living!
