A Step-by-Step Process for Understanding God’s WordSample

Choose a Bible Passage to Study

While we often focus on finding the one big purpose God put us on this earth to fulfill, God calls us to multiple roles and responsibilities throughout our lives. Rather than worrying about missing your “one big calling,” ask yourself, How can I serve God well in this season with the resources and abilities I have right now?

God helps us answer that question through three primary ways: His written Word (the Bible), His spoken word (the Holy Spirit), and the opportunities around us.

God’s written Word (the Bible) is arguably the most straightforward and reliable of these three. No matter how else God may choose to guide you throughout your life, He will never contradict what He has already revealed in Scripture.

Still, we might ask: How? How can we know which truths the Bible’s original authors and speakers wanted to communicate? How do those truths apply in our modern culture today?

These aren’t easy questions to answer, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. After all, since Scripture is one of the primary ways God still speaks, we don’t want to miss out on what He’s saying.

In this week’s devotional, we’re going to explore a seven-step process you can use to help you better understand God’s Word and how it applies to your life today so you can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).

The first step in understanding God’s Word is selecting a passage to study. This could be your daily reading if you already read your Bible regularly. Alternatively, you may want to look up a verse or passage on a specific topic that matters to you. (For example, “What does the Bible say about [divorce, grief, worry, etc.]?”) If you have a study Bible, the concordance in the back should have plenty of ideas to choose from.

Over the next few days, we’re going to look at six more steps you can take to help you understand and apply God’s Word. As we move forward, you can be confident that God is delighted in your desire to know Him and His will more.

Read Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 3:16–17. What words would you use to describe the Bible based on these passages?