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Personal Bible Devotions or Bible Study
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I was just wondering if some of you wouldn’t mind sharing how you have your personal devotions. I used to just read through the Bible and write down the verses that God was speaking to my heart and meditate on those throughout the day. Lately, I have been enjoying a devotional with a small passage from scripture to read. However, I feel that it is equally important that I take time to really dig in and study the Word. I was just wondering if I should continue with my devotional and find another time in the day to actually do a bible study. I like reading my devotional in the morning, but also find that if I read the Word at night I go to sleep meditating on it. Maybe I should do one in the morning and one before bed?
My personal devotions have been varied throughout the years. Since reading the Bible is a life-long, daily pursuit for the Christian, I think this is as it should be. We go through different seasons and have different needs at various times in our lives. Our private time with God and His word will reflect that.
I have used devotionals, journals, and simply read the Bible all at various times through the years. For a while now, I’ve been focused on simplicity so I just read my Bible and copy down verses and prayers into my journal. I do Bible study with my daughter each day so that covers a different kind of Bible reading. I also try to read nonfiction Christian books that stretch me and encourage me in the Lord but I read them at a different time of the day so that they don’t interfere with my Bible reading.
I don’t think there is necessarily one right way to “do” devotions. I do think it’s important not to let other books and devotional type activities take away from our time in God’s word and prayer.
We are currently using Portals of Prayer for independent devotions. It’s a booklet published through our church (Lutheran) which contains a Psalm (or portion of a Psalm) to read, Bible passage, short devotion, and short prayer. They take me 10 minutes or so to get through each day.
Other things I’ve done in the past are:
–to read a Psalm each day, with or without a related devotion
–read a passage of a Bible, make notes on it, then write a prayer in a Bible journal
–go through devotions like Jesus Calling or similar
–just read through a chapter per day. There are tons of Bible reading plans available online as well, and I’ve done some of them. Some plans go through the entire Bible and others just cover selected passages.
–I’ve enjoyed the Life Application Study Bible for just reading through, because the notes almost feel like a mini-devotional as I’m reading along. In true CM fashion, I like to read the passage, collect my thoughts on the passage (possibly writing down a few of the thoughts), then read the notes. lol
Today I finished teaching woman’s Bible study on prayer using Susan Heck’s guide, With the Master on Our Knees. Very good. She also has expository guides on James, Ephesians and more. They can be done as a group or individually.
http://www.withthemaster.com/Resources/
I’ve done different things at different times in my life. I love Pam Forster’s 30-Day studies. They are free via email/on her blog or you can order print copies. She is currently doing a 30 Days in Ephesians study.
http://www.doorposts.com/blog/I’m currently doing a study from lifelivedbeautifully.com called Planted. It’s been really encouraging.
Once I’m finished with this study, I plan on diving into The Gal’s Gospel Guide, by Jordan Lee of Soul Scripts, and her method of in-depth Bible Study.
In the past I’ve done in-depth studies of various books of the Bible by reading a chapter or two a day and then reading from J. Vernon McGee commentary. That is still my favorite way to really dig into the Word. I have his Revelations commentaries that I plan on getting to as well in the upcoming months.
I’ve also done many She Reads Truth reading plans as well as the First 5 app by Lysa Teurkurst.
Thanks ladies for all of your great ideas! I don’t know if I have said it before, but this forum is so so very helpful!! I am blessed!
I also have done many things in the past, but lately I have been feeling the importance of taking more time to actually study. I guess my mind likes to organize things into categories and have a specific plan. So while I love doing a devotional every day (reading a bible passage, reading the small devotional, journaling, and praying it back to God)…I feel like I never take the time to really do the digging for myself. Does that make sense? I guess somehow I want to do a personal devotional reading regularly without skipping the actual studying. I feel like they are different things, but maybe I am making it more complicated than it should be. 🙂
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