Confession No. 21: I Need a System For Learning More About God

I am not what you would consider an "organized / systems kind of girl", but I desperately want to be. I long for the day, when I can make a schedule and stick to it or create a to-do list and knock everything off of that list within the same day. I have found that I often accomplish more in my life when I take the time to lay it down before the Lord and allow Him to guide my steps. Because of this, I've decided that I MUST carve out (demand, make room for, insist on) alone time with God daily. I want to make sure that I am creating every possible opportunity to hear God's gentle whispers to my heart. I'm looking forward to cutting out things in my life in order to make room for THE only thing in my life that can quiet the raging noises of this world. I've committed my life to knowing and serving Him, yet I've done such a poor job of making room for my King.

My New Bible Study System:

OK, so the first thing that I feel God is calling me to is a more systematic and committed approach to learning about Him. My current Bible study time is random in frequency and content. I listen to new sermon podcasts a few days a week, go to a weekly Bible study on Sunday nights, read 2-3 daily e-mail devotionals, and lately in the evenings I've been reading through the daily readings of the Bible on YouVersion for my iPhone. For all of the effort that I'm putting in, I don't feel to be making much progress. The good side of all of this is that God often speaks to me through my study. The bad side is that I never dig deep enough into any certain area of the Bible to experience significant spiritual growth. I've read through or at least listened to most of the Bible in the past, but all knowledge gained was only surface level. Since realizing this, I requested help from some of my friends on Twitter and here are some of the great comments that I received:

• kristyneyland@empowered How bout the reading plans@ www.biblegateway.com under "Resources". I'm a random reader2. Its something new everyday =) haha
• jthom18@empowered I'm not an evangelical,but this is a great book nonetheless: http://is.gd/szXu. I recommend it to many of my evangelical friends.
• melonymckaye@empowered here's a great site to help www.bibleplan.org
• lilenrgzrbunny@empowered start at the beginning and do one book at a time, or do a read through the bible in a year program.
• mom2giqm@empowered I usually pick a book or a section of the Bible and read thru it, not all in one sitting, but read each book like a book.
• BarbPruitt@empowered try doing a study like on a topic or character or a book study.. makes it more interesting...
• truedaughters@empowered 4 the 1st time I'm doing The One Year Bible published by Tyndale, many transl to choose from, old, new, psalm & prov. each day
• HeartforHim@empowered I use a read through the Bible in a year Bible that has passages from the OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs.
• blogomama@empowered Not very systematic but if there's an issue I'm struggling with God seems to turn me to just the right page.

Wow! So much great advice and definitely enough to give me the inspiration to get going. With all of this in mind, I've decided that a great start for me is to study books of the Bible. I've purchased The Bible for Blockheads from Wal-mart to give me a little bit of background information on each book. (such as info about the author, the time period, an overview of the main topics, etc.) I'll read through this before I start each new book. I'll also be sure to listen to podcast sermons that relate to the book I'm reading... a great way to get more insight into what God may be trying to show me. One of the biggest changes that I'll be making is being sure to take time to meditate on, soak in, and apply what I'm learning. Rather than just reading through my Bible, I will allow my Bible to read me. (allowing God to show me what changes I need to make in my life as a result of His Word). I'm super excited about this. Only God knows the changes that are about to occur inside of me.

I'll be starting with the book of John. Want to join me? E-mail me at anna@empoweredmagazine.com!