Studying

This week brought up a ton of new ideas that I have never really thought about before. I never thought that what I study is the object of my worship. And when I first read through this I was confused and didn't felt like I struggled with this as I don't worship math or english.... but once I started to think about it, I realized that I do intently study my friends and how I can get more love and that I place a large emphasis on studying academics so I can succeed and feel good about myself. I study these false idols thinking that they will satisfy and fill me up with love and purpose when really they are just empty promise. The only true satisfaction we will ever get is finding truth and love in our Savior. When we study His word, Jesus's life, and all of the promises He has made to us, it is then, as Stef said it, that our minds can be renewed and our souls can be transformed.

Studying God's word and truly delving into what He is saying is something I have learned a lot more how to do this first year in college. Before college, I would kinda skim over a bunch of verses and try to take away one overall meaning. However, my Bible Study this year totally changed the way I read the Bible. I now only go through about 5-10 verses in a quiet time instead of trying to skim a whole chapter and I really to try to focus on each specific word and try to decipher why God chose to use those words or phrases. We would even go as far to look up the Greek meaning to see what the specific definition for the word in the context of that verse would be. By really digging deep into scripture, I have learned you get SO much more out of it as opposed to trying to be find an overall meaning in a chunk of verses

For example, we read Psalm 23 in my Bible Study and before this study, I would read the verse "your rod and your staff, they comfort me" extremely quickly and just thought the meaning was that God is always guiding and comforting me. While this is true, I learned after exploring the definitions of rod and staff more that shepherds use a staff to reel sheep in and protect them from straying away from the path; while a rod is something that protects sheep from your enemies. So not only is Jesus protecting us from danger but He is also making sure that we are never stray away from Him and that He will always reel us back into His arms.... how freaking cool is that?! Would have NEVER known that unless I had learned to be more intentional about reading scripture and really try to break down each verse to see exactly what God wants to reveal to us.

Sorry for the tangent of how I study the Bible but I thought it might be helpful to some of you and might encourage you to read the Bible in a different way! Praying that we all continue to seek nourishment and satisfaction for our souls through studying His word rather than other false idols!! :)

Allie