My Daily Bible Study Routine

II Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to Yahweh: a workman having no shame, correctly dissecting the word of truth.“

Lately I’ve had several people ask me what I do on a daily basis to study my Bible. First let me just say that everyone is different and learns differently so what I do may not be what works for you. There are some days I do a little and some days I do more, depending on what my day looks like. Days like the Sabbath are set aside to do more. Most important is to do something.

I was talking to someone a few weeks ago and they hadn’t been in their Bible for weeks. Life was just too busy they said. I asked them what would happen if you went weeks without listening to your husband because life was just too busy. Being in any relationship without two-way communication is a recipe for disaster for that relationship. If Tom and I didn’t speak to each other several times a day we wouldn’t have much of a marriage after a short amount of time.

For a long time I was a person who just fought the next fire that blew up in my life. Reading my Bible and spending time with Yahweh was not even a top ten priority for me. It was almost non-existent. And my life showed that lack of time with Him. Always worried about something; anxious and feeling completely out of control of everything around me. There was no peace. And then we adopted, which you can read more about on the adoption link at the top and in my book; Adoption Combat Zone. I was faced with a choice. Either I started relying on Yahweh and spending time with Him, even though I had absolutely no “extra” time in my days, or I was going to crash and burn.

I made a commitment that moment to start my day with Him every day. I had to start my day by doing it because putting it off until later meant never getting to it. My days ran from one thing to another in swift sequence. There was barely time to breathe and eat, let alone sit quietly with Yahweh for any length of time. What that meant for me is I had to get up and spend time before the chaos began. Getting sleep at that time in my life was already a gamble. One night I would get three hours of interrupted sleep, the next four. I was running on empty. To get up 15 minutes earlier seemed crazy but it was my only option if I was was going to spend any quiet time with Him.

That’s what I did. Started with 15 minutes. I asked myself what could I do in 15 minutes. My mind went to the Psalms. I found a plain notebook like children use in school and decided to sit quietly for 15 minutes and write out a Psalms, starting with number one. If the Psalms of that day was long I stopped at 15 minutes and finished it the next day. Some of them took me several days to finish. After about a month it became a habit which I continue to this day. When I get finished with Psalms 150 I start over again.

By doing this over the last several years I found more blessings than I ever thought possible.

• My mind was quieter throughout my entire day. It didn’t affect just those 15 minutes but the entire next 24 hours.
• Peace. That peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7) was real and I felt it. There are no words to explain what feeling that kind of peace does for me. My mind becomes filled with Him instead of the stress of life.
• It helps me to handle those fires with more calm and wisdom.
• It slowed down my reading. I am a very fast reader and sometimes that isn’t good because it is easy to miss things. Writing out the Psalms and reading them aloud at the same time caused me to slow down and really listen to what He was saying to me. I asked questions through the writing like how does that sentence apply to me or comments like wow, Yahweh really did something here; He is so amazing! I meditated on what I was reading/writing and talked to Him through the entire time. And I gave Him praise for all the things He did.
• It started my day with me talking to Him. Yes, He talked to me through what I was reading/writing but I also started talking to Him. About what I was getting ready to face in my day, what had happened the day before, asking Him what He wanted from me that day, etc. It started the conversation. Which then had me talking with Him all through that day and into the night. And if I was awake during the night I continued the conversation with Him rather than dwell on all of the chaos. This became a habit of daily conversations with Yahweh. While I did the dishes, while I drove on errands, while I walked through the grocery store. Some call it prayer. I call it constant conversations with my God.
• My relationship with Yahweh began to go much deeper. He was my “refuge and strength, ever present help in time of need: (Psalms 46:1). When I had no one else to talk to, He was there. I could tell Him anything because He already knew it anyway.
• My heart became clean because I forgave. Everything and everyone. I kept nothing of anger or unforgiveness in my heart. Reading what King David went through yet he forgave and Yahweh loved him made an impression upon me. I wanted what he had; a clean heart.
• I became more patient. Less likely to snap at someone or something that happened. I became more thoughtful instead of reactionary. That gave me more peace because I had less regret over something I said or did in haste. I learned to wait. Wait on Him. Wait to see how things would play out. I learned to ask Him how I should respond.
• I apologized. To those I had hurt. I asked Him to forgive me for those things I didn’t remember.
• When I wanted to keep something close that I had read I wrote a line or two of scripture on a yellow sticky and placed it someplace I would see it, usually on a kitchen cabinet. Before long my cabinets were covered in Bible verse sticky notes. No matter what I was dealing with I could glance up and see His words talking to me. I would take a deep breath and remember that He was in complete control and all I had to do was let go and trust Him.
• Trust. That word means a lot to me. It means a lot to Yahweh. Trust and faith go hand in hand. Without trust we don’t have a relationship with Him. Trust means no fear. No doubt. No matter what. Whether I have a good day or a horrific one I have learned to trust Him no matter what. Because this is now such a integral part of my life when something unexpected happens, which it does to us all, my mind immediately turns to Him. He is my first thought instead of my second, or tenth, or as in the past, not at all. I want to know what He wants me to do, or say. I want His guidance, wisdom, understanding, discernment and protection.
• I learned to praise Him no matter what was going on. I praise Him for every big and little thing. I praise Him for a close parking spot at the store and I praise Him for really big blessings like saving us from a potential disaster. I learned that He loves me more than anyone else loves me and like a parent does for a child He wants to bless me. He will also discipline me to bring me more in alignment with Him and His will so I will praise Him no matter what.
• Along with praise I learned to give Him the glory for things in my life. I had what I did because of His grace and love. He deserves all the glory for who I have become. What I have overcome and accomplished is all because of Him!
• It became funny to me how many times I would read/write something that had everything to do with what I had going on at the time. I would laugh with Yahweh at how appropriate that particular Psalms was for me at that very moment. I knew He was chuckling right along with me. Or crying in some instances.

There have been so many more benefits to starting with that 15 minutes first thing every morning. My life has been enriched beyond measure. Those 15 minutes became 30, then 60 or more on some days like the Sabbath. Some days it is still 15. But it is always at least 15. Back in those chaotic days sometimes I had more time after I had written out the Psalms of the day so I started reading through the Bible from start to finish. Then I did it again. That made me want to dig more into some of the things I was reading. Somewhere along the road I became a student rather than just a reader of His Word. That has been a precious gift that all began with the commitment to 15 minutes a day.

I truly believe that if I had not started with just 15 minutes a day done at the beginning of my day I would not be where I am today in my relationship with Yahweh. It is the most important time I spend every day and it has given me gifts beyond count. I heard a saying a long time ago that you can’t do everything, but you can do something. I can do something. I can do 15 minutes.

This has been Simply My Opinion,

Kathe

P.S.

-I have several different Bibles that I study from but my main ones are The Scriptures by the Institute of Biblical Research and The Christogenea New Testament. I love that they use the real Name of Yahweh. The Scriptures is available on Amazon; the Christogenea can be ordered HERE. Other books that I use for study are listed on the BIBLICAL RESOURCES TAB here on my blog.

-To learn more about the Sabbath and other Set-Apart Feast days that Christians should be observing here is a LINK to learn more.

-To purchase a copy of Adoption Combat Zone here is the LINK.