“Above all else, guard your heart for it affects everything else you do.”
― Proverbs 4:23
Why I Go to Bible Study
When I saw the announcement in my church bulletin for the upcoming Bible Study, I smiled.
It will be good to get back to Wonderful Wednesday mornings, I thought. Get back to a group of great women who all desire to pray for one another and grow in their faith.
It seems I have been attending some kind of Bible Study—either personal or in a small group—for over thirty years now. Since professing my belief in Christ way back in October 1980, as a senior at James Madison University, until today, opening the pages of my Bible has been an integral part of my day-to-day.
A couple weeks ago, our teacher, Ellen, said something that seemed to answer why I have made this practice a priority. Completely unaware of the profoundness of her words, she simply said,
Stay in the Word.
There, inside the pages of Scripture,
God explains away
every pain, every temptation,
every fear, every anxiety,
every care, every worry,
every sorrow, every perplexity,
well, every thing.
I may have added a thought or two here and there, but Ellen sealed the deal with three words:
God explains away.
Stay in the Word
The other highly necessary point in her teaching was our need to stay in the Word.
Stay, derived from the Latin, stare, means to stand. And, in the transitive verb form, means, “to stick or remain with (as a race or trial of endurance) to the end —usually used in the phrase stay the course.”
Sticking with something to the end is a hard thing to do, isn’t it? We’ve all started things and then decided it was too hard, not very much fun, not what we expected, or just plain boring. For sure, we’ve had children do the same. Sticktuitiveness requires discipline and we all know how much we love that word!
My Top Five Reasons for Staying in and Studying the Word of God
- It feeds me. My body needs a daily diet of food and water; my soul and spirit need a daily diet of Scripture.
- It helps me. Life gets hard and I get tired. The Bible gives me strength and power to live in this world.
- It guides me. Sometimes I don’t know what to do or how to do it. Many great men and women, whose life is recorded in the Scriptures, exemplify and encourage me with “how-to’s” and “how-to-not’s.”
- It reminds me. I live in one of the biggest cities in Virginia, but man…there is a really big world out there. The Bible reminds me that not everyone in the world is like me, nor should they be like me. They won’t worship like me, talk like me, dress like me, or even eat or drink like me. I serve a great big God with a whole lot of children. It’s not up to me to judge. I’ll leave that to him.
- It reveals my future. This world, the kingdom of earth, is not my only home—I am heading to the kingdom of heaven. Whenever this world overwhelms and disappoints and distracts and plain ole’ gets to me, I know there is so much more.
Would you Share?
I’d love to know if and why you go to Bible Study. If you don’t want to share here, feel free to email me: janellrardon@gmail.com. I’m working on several Bible Studies right now and am eager to know your heart. And if you have a spare minute or two, please fill out this simple survey. Those of you who have already done this—WOW!—it is incredibly eye-opening and insightful. THANK YOU!