How to Study and Apply Scripture: Word in Habit
You’re terrible at reading the Bible.
I’ll get that elephant out of the room right off the bat. Don’t worry, so am I. We’re in this together. I know that may not be an encouraging start to your week, but statistically, it’s true.
According to a 2018 survey by Barna, 14% of Americans read the Bible daily. Now, I’m not here to guilt you into spending more time in the Word. I don’t think you need any convincing. There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re reading this, you already know exactly how much you need the Word in your life.
If you’re here, you probably know that the Living Word of God is the most important resource on the planet, and you know that you need more of it.
Our goal is to help you get the most out of your time in the Word. As human beings, it’s hard for us to devote a lot of time to things with intangible benefits. For better or for worse, we need to see results. Here’s an example of what I mean:
The two most common New Year’s resolutions are exercise and weight loss. Yet less than half of people who have those new goals will meet them. Why? Those results take time. We can’t see the result immediately.
Many people hate exercising. It’s just not that fun, especially at first. You can grow to love it, but the first few weeks, months, or even years can be really difficult to get excited about. It can feel like you’re not achieving anything meaningful at all. The problem is that exercise and weight-loss goals take time to see results, and when we don’t see results, we stop doing things.
The diet and exercise markets are flooded and all the advertising and marketing look the same: “Guaranteed results!” But even if the marketing matches the product, it takes time to see results, and that makes it really easy to drop out before we’ve put in enough time. I do a single sit-up and then run to the mirror to see if I have an ab yet. I never do. I confess I don’t actually know how abs work.
In the same 2018 Barna survey, they found that 53% of adults who used the Bible in the last week say they give a lot of thought to how the Bible might apply to their daily lives. That’s good. But the data reveals an important question we should be asking: why are 47% of people who use the Bible unconcerned with how it applies? Or perhaps they are concerned with how it applies, but they don’t have the tools and resources to learn how to apply it. 58% of Americans would say the Bible has transformed their lives in some way, but again, only 14% of them use the Bible daily.
We have more access to the Scriptures than any people in history, and yet statistically, we can’t be bothered to actually use it. I wonder if it’s because we know we’re supposed to read it, but we actually don’t know what to do with what we read.
So we wrote a book about it.
Word in Habit
Word in Habit is kind of like a prequel to Word in Heart, a book I wrote last year about Scripture memory. I think Scripture memory is pretty important, but if we’re not learning how to apply the immeasurable truths of Scripture to our daily life, we’re just filling our head with Bible trivia.
Our aim with this book is to equip you to see the Bible as the incredibly valuable resource that it is and how to get the most out of it. We’ll look at a few popular Bible study techniques and practices to help you approach the Word methodically and systematically. We want to fill your toolkit with all the resources you could need in order to stir a hunger and a thirst for the Word of God and learn how to apply deep meaning and supernatural insight to your everyday life.
Our goal is for this to be a practical resource you can use to get started and build a lifelong habit of consistent time in the Word—as well as a resource you can share with others to help them know how to get started.
As such, it’s a short book—it should only take you a couple of hours to read the whole thing—we don’t want to weigh the book down with too many details. We want it to a simple, approachable resource that will help you find your way to a habit that will change your life.
Look for Word in Habit on April 27th, or sign up for our newsletter for all the updates about our upcoming releases!
