Ask These Three Questions the Next Time You Read the Bible

If you’ve started a “Read the Bible in Year” program you are six days into your journey. You’ve probably already read about the creation, the talking-flying serpent, and the brotherly quarrel that ultimately led to murder. With stories like that, who can say reading the Bible is boring? If you are one of the seekers that have embarked on this pilgrimage of faith, I applaud you. This endeavor is certain to lead you to a deeper understanding of God.

In the past, when I read through the Bible in a year, I found myself reading but not engaging the text (Read my post on how to engage and interact with the Bible by clicking HERE). I ended up reading simply to reach my quota for the day, but I wasn’t taking time to think about what I was reading and how it applied to me. So, I decided to be more intentional about how I interacted with the text.

What follows are three questions that have been helpful to me as I read the Bible. I hope they are helpful to you.

The Three Questions.

1.     What is it saying?

Answer the who, what when, where, and why questions. In other words, understand the story and context. There is often a tendency to infer all sorts of things into the passage you are reading. You are, after all a collection of your lived experiences. As a result, you bring to the text everything you have learned, lived, and been taught your entire life. It is important as you uncover the context that you don’t let those things get in the way. You will have plenty of opportunities to draw on your experiences later. For now just let the passage say what it says. Don’t draw any conclusions yet.

Take for example the story of Jonah. It’s a story about a prophet of God, who refused to go where God was calling him to go. In his efforts to run away he was swallowed by a big fish and after a couple of days still ended up where God wanted him to go. This first step is simply getting an understanding of what the passage is saying at face value.

One of the Bibles I recommend to help you answer this first questions is, the “NIV First-Century Study Bible” it explores the scriptures in their Jewish and early Christian Context.

2.     What is the deeper truth behind the story or text?

Now that you have done your best to understand the story and context, you want to make some connections to what the passage says about the deeper things of life. What is the point of the story or passage? What is it teaching you about God, yourself, life, doctrine, wisdom, etc. What deep truths is this passage teaching you?  What is this passage or story really about? What is it teaching you about faith?What is the timeless truth?

Going back to the story of Jonah, perhaps we can say that sometimes the choices we make take us away from the better more fulfilling options. Beyond that, we might say that we live within the divine order and flow of how God works things out. Even though sometimes our current circumstances don’t always make sense in the moment they are happening, in the end if we are open to them, they can be transformative experiences.

A good Bible to help you with this step is the “ESV Study Bible”.

3.     What is it calling you to do?

How does this apply to you? What is the passage calling you to do? How does it affect your life? Do you have to change something in your life? This is the step where you have to trust the Spirit to give you eyes to see.

As in Jonah’s story, perhaps what it is calling you to do, is be open to go to the places God is calling you to go. And be open to the things God is inviting you to do. They may not be your first choice of things to do, and they may force you out of your comfort zone. However, you will often find blessings when you take the leap of faith away from the safety of your comfort zones.

A Word about Journaling.

You might find it helpful to use a journal as your read through the Bible. Personally, I use the classic Moleskine journal(its durable and travels well). I don’t write out the answers to the questions as that would take too long. But I do make notes when there are things I want to remember. I encourage you to do the same.

I hope these questions are helpful you as read your Bible. What else has been helpful for you as you read?