Faith.
When I think about the way my relationships have changed as a result of getting scripture into my regular diet- with the Lord, with the world, with my community... it's incredible. I can always rest in the confidence of who God is. The vitality of the word of God in the life of a believer becomes more and more relevant and evidenced as I continue to read. I can honestly say there has never been a time I have opened the word since committing to go forward in prayer that I have not been built into."So then faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God."
~Romans 10:17
Key things that helped me getting into the Word:
Getting into a small Bible Study.
A place I felt was comfortable enough to ask questions, because the people there were trustworthy and knowledgeable about the word as well as humble. The fact that there was no other agenda than to read the Bible in community was helpful as well. Simply reading the word of the Lord and counting on Him to do the revealing. No written assignments. No model for application. Read the chapter, and talk about what it was actually saying. What was really going on.
Surprisingly, I have found this experience rare. There is a tendency in small groups to follow a guide or a manual. I more often find people getting together to read inspirational books on how to live according to the word of God. Why not just read the word of God? We can trust that He will not let His word return void. If the heart is willing to seek Him first and be open to what God is truly saying, then He will meet the heart of the seeker.
Setting up a pattern for study, and sticking to that pattern.
Mine was a chapter a day. Now, I may not always be able to repeat the whole chapter. But I have found that the Lord always reveals something-if I ask Him to. Sometimes it will be reading a long series of chapters and then a huge revelation will hit, and I look back at the journey and see how the Lord prepared my heart.
The fact that there was a group of people on the same pattern was a huge help. Getting an e-mail every day that just let you know there were others on the same page is a huge encouragement.
Learning the Cultural Context.
Understanding the cultural context of when the scripture was written is a very doable thing. In my case, the leaders of my study brought the Jewish culture of the time into the forefront in way I had yet to process. With that as a tool, pieces of scripture that I used to skip over and assume would never become clear to me were suddenly hugely revelatory, and put many things into a whole new perspective. Since then I have found if something seems not to make sense or is not easily understood, sometimes those things are the pieces I need to go back to the most. They can be the part of the passage that puts an entirely new perspective on things, or the crux of a lesson the Lord has for me.
Our God wants to be known. He has given us the means to know Him in His word.
