This past week we launched our first, “Sermon Prep Challenge”. We wanted to challenge and encourage all of you to connect with God through His Word and His church. When we first came up with the idea, we had no idea it would be happening while we went through a pandemic. It was bittersweet to go through this challenge and not be able to sit with fellow brothers and sisters at the end of the week to soak in the sermon together. However, it did allow me to feel a bit closer to my church knowing several of my friends were all diving into this passage of Scripture together, along with our pastor. 

My church had just begun to study Psalm 23, with this past week’s sermon focusing on the four simple words: “I shall not want.” Each day, the Dayton Women of the Word team had a study tool to focus on. 

Monday: Context
Tuesday: Annotation
Wednesday: Compare Translations
Thursday: Cross References
Friday: Word Study
Saturday: Respond to the Text

I was by no means an A+ student with this challenge. I have a 2-year-old at home who requires a lot of pretend play and snack deliveries. Yet almost every day, I found a little bit of time to sit down and study the Psalm. I loved that with each different study tool, something new stuck out. When I was annotating, I noticed that David goes from a style of, “He makes, He leads, He restores” to “You are with me, You comfort, You prepare.” I wondered whether there was some significance to this. When I compared translations, the simplicity of, “I shall not want” was broken down in a new way that brought clarity. One time there was a cross reference that went to a passage my husband and I had just read with my daughter at bedtime the night before. Suddenly other passages in Scripture were coming alive to me in new ways.

Instead of being tempted to be distracted by my phone or my kid during the sermon, I was motivated to remain focused.

On Sunday, I tuned into church. I was excited to hear how a fellow believer dove into the text. What did he take from this passage that I didn’t? What was the same? Instead of being tempted to be distracted by my phone or my kid during the sermon, I was motivated to remain focused. I was so excited when one of the big questions I had been sitting on was addressed by my Pastor. (If you’re curious, he mentioned the style change and how it was David reminding himself the promises of God when it shifted in style.) 

This was the first time I studied the text of my church without having a group of girls in a Bible Study doing it alongside me. I found the simple structure was enough to hold me accountable each day to get into the Word. It was such a purposeful way to engage with my church on Sunday mornings; I’m motivated to do it again. On Monday morning, the sermon was still fresh in my mind, because I had studied it for myself.  It also was a great way to remind me to pray for my pastor throughout the week. 

This is a study tool to keep in mind if you’re ever in between Bible Studies or just not sure what to study for yourself.

Did you do the challenge? It’s not too late to try it yourself! This is a study tool to keep in mind if you’re ever in between Bible Studies or just not sure what to study for yourself. It’s also just a great way to stay engaged with your own church! We will definitely be doing this challenge as a ministry in the future. So whether you do it now or later, we’d love to hear how it went. 

You can always email us (daytonwomenintheword@gmail.com) or tag us on Instagram or Facebook sharing your experience! 

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Jen Ward is the Written Content Contributor for DWITW. Jen wants to live in a world where chocolate croissants grow on trees, all babies automatically sleep through the night, and every woman feels empowered to study Scripture on her own.  Connect with Jen via Instagram @JenieAnn.

It was a number of weeks ago I felt the Spirit of God pushing me to explore the book of John a little deeper. This was both frightening and encouraging, because I always enjoy reading the book of John, but felt less prepared to really “study.” Recently, while listening to the Bible Project Podcast, I learned John wrote his gospel from a reflective mindset. Perhaps this explains his poetic style or his ability to constantly point back to Jesus being the Christ, one with God. But God wasn’t asking me to read the whole book.

As I began reading, I found myself constantly traveling back to the first five verses of the Book of John. It was like a tick, I didn’t feel satisfied until I read those verses: once, twice, move on, come back. It was hard to go through the day without thinking of those verses. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  … “In the beginning” … “In the beginning”... I knew that phrase! So I decided to flex my study skills (something I’m not so confident in) and go back to Genesis.

Genesis 1 opens with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The use of this phrase in John would have prompted his readers to return to or remember this opening line. They would have had the same reaction as me, thinking “Oh! I know this. God created in the beginning, and somehow the “Word” was there with Him. How could that be?” From this point, I did a side-by-side comparison of the first five verses of both passages to find other connections.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome itIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
John 1: 1-5

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Genesis 1:1-5

Some initial similarities I saw where

• Both passages open with “In the beginning”

• Both passages deal with light (physical and spiritual)

• Both passages deal with creation

My question became: What is the connection between “the Word” and God speaking? Is there a connection? 

Enter the dragon! I mean...word study. A tool I think is great... for other people -mainly because I am not so confident in using it, but it was something God was asking me to do.  I waited a few days and then started the process. (Honesty is important, right?) As long as I’m being honest, I did not solely focus on this connection while studying, and I do not do well with Greek/Hebrew, so I relied on Logos and Blue Letter Bible to help me examine these things.

One of the key pieces of information I found was the Greek used by John when he wrote “the Word” implies “speech in action,” which agrees with the English translation of the Hebrew used in Genesis, “God said.” Both mean this speaking is active. Then, the Blue Letter Bible blew my mind OUT OF THE WATER by connecting these two sections for me. They know this is a common connection and I’m just a little late to the party. The commentators stated John implies that God is speaking in the present, but has also been speaking in ETERNITY PAST (the Word was with God) and will continue speaking into ETERNITY FUTURE.

In short : God has always been talking to himself, and at some point He decided to speak into creation and give us this world and life. INCREDIBLE.

Then, I froze. This was all amazing, and I was so excited, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I started a new job, I was stressed, and I stopped listening to the God who is always speaking.

BUT GOD….

I knew I needed to  read the Bible, even if I was stressed, and decided to pick back up in 1 Samuel. I skimmed through Hannah’s prayer, and reread Samuel hearing  from God for the first time. As I read, I saw Samuel responding three times to the wrong voice. He would run to Eli, the Priest in charge of the temple and say “Here I am!” But Eli wasn’t calling. It took Eli until the THIRD time to say, “Samuel, you are hearing the voice of God. The next time this happens, respond to Him.”

The God who is constantly speaking into creation wants to participate in a true conversation with you.

Wow, God is persistent. And boy, are we blessed by that. Even this man of faith, one who had devoted his life to being in God’s presence, wasn’t sure who Samuel should be responding to until the third time.  Samuel, knowing it was God, then changed his response. He says, “yes, Lord, I am listening.” To me, Samuel went from active to peaceful, from talking to listening. He decided to hear what God was calling him to do.

I was deeply encouraged by this, because I was reminded of the times I fail. I will look for a response in my work, in my relationships, in trying harder, rather than being still to listen for the voice of God. Sometimes I hear Him calling, and I actively run away, like Jonah. Sometimes I am waiting for Him in the fire and thunder, rather than a whisper, like Elijah on the mountain. I need to be practicing my listening skills, to become more familiar with the voice of my shepherd, like Jesus says in John. How can I do that? I’ve thought of a few ways and would like to invite you to join me. Whether it is in preparation for Summer Study, or a simple desire to hear God more clearly.

1. Pray. This sounds easy, but it’s not the prayer where we spend all the time talking, it’s the prayer where we sit down and tell God, “I’m listening.” Practice with me taking time without your phone, without music, without distraction, to focus on God and His voice. If you find yourself struggling, tell Him. There is such power in admitting our weakness! He must become greater, and I must become less.

2. Read your Bible and Use your tools. Again, easy? Maybe. Difficult to do consistently? For sure! I would encourage you to start with a passage you know well and do some cross referencing. Or discover the context of the passage/book. Know what you’re reading, who it’s to, and why they wrote it. If you feel adequate in that (Not perfect, just comfortable) move into a passage that feels unfamiliar. Practice feeling out of your depth and go to the Lord. Then start using your tools before going to a commentary or your study notes. This is SO HARD and can make me feel like I’m not doing anything, but not all waiting is bad or disobedient. If you aren’t sure if your waiting is disobedient to the Lord and you are struggling to hear Him, try the next “step.”

3. Ask a friend! Maybe not just any friend, but one you trust is also working on hearing from the Lord. Often, my husband helps to redirect me when I’m just feeling “lost” to see my unbelief or doubt that is leading me to resist the voice of God. If He was speaking to you from YOUR beginning, He is speaking to you now.

The God who is constantly speaking into creation wants to participate in a true conversation with you. One with a call and response. One where we allow Him to speak, knowing His words are true, full of grace and mercy, dripping with forgiveness as sweet as honey from the honeycomb. Let us practice stillness and listening in a world so full of busyness and monologuing. Peace be with you (and also with you.)

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Kate Haas wants to live in a world with free coffee, hugs, and deep conversations. When she isn’t in class, you can find her at home with her husband and four-legged toddler reading a book or watching a detective show. Her favorite scripture is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. [Amen? Amen!]”

Something she finds comforting when reading the Bible (esp. the OT) is in this verse: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deuteronomy 29:29 (comforting to know God has given us what we need, and He is over all the things we don't understand.)

It's our pleasure to welcome back our friend Elise Herzing to the blog this week to review 1 Peter: A Living Hope in Christ by Jen Wilkin. To see Elise's review of Kelly Minter's 1,2,3 John study, click here.

Peter wrote his first letter in a time of great turmoil for the young Christian church. Many Christians were undergoing persecution at the hands of the Roman Emperor, Nero. Peter, Jesus’ tempestuous apostle, addresses the church at large in this epistle on how Christians are to live in a place that is not our home, specifically to those undergoing suffering. He instructs Christians on how to submit to the authorities in our lives, how we are to set examples of love for one another and how our eyes must not be fixed on the temporary, but on the eternal. Jen Wilkin tackles this challenging letter by walking us through her deep-dwelling and enriching method for Bible study.

The Skinny: First things first, Jen explains how you are to use the study and why. If any of you have read her book, Women of the Word, she condenses much of that information in the introduction of this study. I would recommend that you read this intro as it is useful in your day-to-day approach! Jen breaks the study into 9 sessions. I met with my group each week to go through one session. For each week of the study, there is a corresponding video, which is optional and we chose not to utilize.

The study had a rhythm for each week with these components:

• a brief intro to the passage we would be studying
• a read through of 1 Peter in its entirety
• big picture questions and others focused in on that week’s passage
• instruction to paraphrase that portion of Scripture in your own words
• group discussion questions gleaned from that week’s study
• a space for any additional notes

What I Loved:  Jen throws us in the deep end of the 1 Peter pool, but not without the floaties of additional resources and Scripture. Don’t let that scare you, though: anyone can use this study! Jen is a big proponent of driven learning. You will get out of this study what you put in. There is no hand-holding you to the Spiritual truths; that would defy the very purpose of Jen’s method of study. She provides you with the guidance you need to find God’s truth on your own or in the group discussion. And I love that. I could use this study as what it was: A RESOURCE with Scripture being the sole focus! I must warn y’all that there is no flowery language or personal stories that somehow apply to the Scripture. It is just a book of paper with questions for you to fill with your own ink. For example, each day gives you questions based on the passage, word definitions to look up, cross-references to find, and parallels to draw. I also LOVED that Jen include the whole book of 1 Peter at the back of the book to mark up as you studied.

What I Didn't Love: Since our group didn’t use the video sessions, there were a couple of instances when the questions correlating to the video felt incomplete. Additionally, my note-loving heart and hand missed the more spacious areas to answer the questions, especially when it came to sections where we wrote down definitions and related verses. Also, throughout the course of the study Jen would have us highlight words in 1 Peter in different colors and then go through and record how many times those specific words occurred. This may be more impactful for a visual learner, but for me it became more of a busy-work exercise. Finally, You will get out of this study what you put in. You’ll notice that I included this as one of the things that I loved about this study, which I do! But it also was a struggle for me to be self-disciplined enough to put in the daily work I needed to richly dwell in this book. The weeks where I put in the time to learn were much more impactful to me than the weeks where I hastily scribbled out answers the night before our group meeting. It was a challenge. It wasn’t always fun. I didn’t always love it. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

My Profound Truth: Y’all. There are so many profound truths in 1 Peter that it was hard for me to pick one. All of them link together with Peter’s themes of living as exiles with the hope of eternity. 1 Peter 2:21-25 sums up the purpose of the book by discussing how we are called to submit to others, even if suffering is involved. Why? Christ submitted and suffered for us so that we may receive our eternal inheritance: salvation! This inheritance makes any temporary suffering we face bearable because we ourselves are not temporary. Our bodies may be earthly, but our souls are eternal. We have better things to look forward to. When we keep in mind that this earthly life is just a shadow, we are free to live as God intended: without fear, giving all praise and glory to Him, filled with love for one another. But part of that life of freedom means becoming examples of the one who submitted himself to the will of God and died for us all. If Jesus is called to submit, suffer, and die, then so are we. It’s a hard truth, but a chain-breaking one. What do we have to be afraid of? Our inheritance is set! Our salvation is secure! Nothing on this earth can touch the promise that God has given us. That is good news!  We can rejoice in the midst of suffering because we are being made more like Christ! Amen, amen, amen!

If you want to feel the chains of fear break off and learn what living as a Christ-follower and an exile looks like, I highly recommend this study. It will push you to seek out truth. The good news is you don’t have to study alone. Find a group of women, hold each other accountable and have grace with each other. God desires us to seek him out, and if that is your desire then this is a study for you.

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Elise wants to live in a world where you can eat as much pizza as you want without concerns about your waistline. When she's not guzzling tea, you can find her reveling in God's nature or watching exorbitant amounts of Gilmore Girls. One of her favorite Scriptures is Ephesians 5:8-10: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." Explore her other favorite Scriptures and get to know her on Instagram at @eliseherzing.

It's our pleasure to welcome Elise Herzing to the blog this week to share her thoughts on Kelly Minter's study of 1,2,3 John.

1, 2, and 3rd John are three little books tucked away somewhere at the back of the Bible between the instructional Hebrews and the apocalyptic Revelation. With these two most imposing books in the New Testament serving as the very thick bread in the 1-3 John sandwich, it is very easy for the filling of 1-3 John to be overlooked. But these three little books are rich and full and bursting at the seams with lessons about God's love for us and how we are to love others. Even though they are small, great and flavorful things come in small packages. 

Kelly Minter's "The Living Room Series" is designed to bring women together in a comfortable environment to bring about honest and genuine conversation. It's meant to be hosted in your living room, around a table or in a local coffee shop. Not only is the series packed full of God's truths, there are also some tasty recipes included. What Love Is: The Letters of 1, 2, 3, John is just one of many in her series. 

The Skinny: I began this study with a group of women who were in my house church at the time. We had just finished a study about abiding in God and were looking for a new study to go through together. A poll was sent out between a Kelly Minter study, a Beth Moore study, and a book of the Bible. Kelly Minter won the majority vote and through process of elimination, this study was selected. We met on a monthly basis to work our way through the six sessions of the study. For each week of the study, there was a corresponding video session, which is optional but our group decided to utilize. The video sessions, while wonderful and full of biblical truth, are not necessary to go through the study. Each week focuses on a section of 1, 2 or 3 John and has a series of personal questions throughout the week as well as questions for the group.

What I Loved: I loved how this study focused on biblical truth throughout every week. Each week, Kelly pointed out several theological truths from the passage we were studying in order to create "John's Theological Soup" with ingredients such as "The new command to love is loving like Jesus loved" from 1 John 2:7-8 and "Every believer in Christ is a child of God and is born of God" from 1 John 3:1,9. These truths straight from Scripture reminds us of our identity as Christians as well as who God is and who Jesus is. In addition to these truths, the study has margins set aside for all you note-takers, scriptural cross-references as well as original Greek translations and definitions for commonly repeated and emphasized words and phrases.

I also loved the way Kelly made the study feel like you were having a conversation with another sister in Christ in her living room. It was as if you were holding a cup of tea with lots of blankets around you, talking about the love that God has for you and how He wants to display His love for others through us. And the fact that she included some of her family recipes throughout the study definitely helped make me feel right at home.

What I Didn't Love: Although I loved this study, I did not love how it held your hand through the majority of the sessions. There was not a whole lot of room for you to discover these truths for yourself based purely in Scripture; as Kelly walked through most of the Scripture with her own personal thought process and experiences. While it is helpful to have her perspective on what 1-3 John has to say, it didn't help me with creating and processing through the Scripture in my personal quiet times. There was constantly someone else's voice and perspective in my times with the Word. However, if you have better self-control than I do, this shouldn't pose an issue.

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"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 
1 John 4:12

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My Profound Truth: One of the biggest mind-melts for me in this study was in Session 4, Day 3, focusing on 1 John 4:7-14, particularly verse 12: "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." The whole book of 1 John is building up to this idea that God is perfect and powerful; and that he sent his perfect son to die for those he loved (by the way, that's us!!!), but that his love is not complete until we love one another. And this God IS LOVE. This powerful, perfect God who IS LOVE: His love isn't made complete until we love one another as He loved us; which is completely, sacrificial and selflessly. When we love one another, WE can see God!! We see Him in acts of service, in gifts, and in time spent with one another, in the mundane and the tremendous. We see him in sudsy dishes and in walks with friends. We can see God when we love others, and when we are loved in return. Wow. How huge is that?! It was "rock my world" huge and it completely changed my perspective on acts of service and loving others well.

If you are interested in learning more about the GINORMOUS love that God has for you and how we are to share that love with others, pick up this study!! But whether or not you pick up this particular study, I would encourage you to study through 1-3 John regardless. It is chock-full of deep, spiritual truths and is encouraging for the Christian woman in all walks of life. 

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Elise wants to live in a world where you can eat as much pizza as you want without concerns about your waistline. When she's not guzzling tea, you can find her reveling in God's nature or watching exorbitant amounts of Gilmore Girls. One of her favorite Scriptures is Ephesians 5:8-10: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." Explore her other favorite Scriptures and get to know her on Instagram at @eliseherzing.

God is the same. He never changes. It says so in Scripture.

As we've been interviewing women on the Dayton Women in the Word Podcast, I've noticed a couple of trends in the topics that we've discussed. Yes, Jesus Christ is the same. Yes, His Word is living and abiding (1 Peter 1:23). But I think it is worth our while, and most healthy, to allow some trends in the way we interact with His Word to fade.

1. "Quiet Time"

Growing up, the term my parents used for our daily time with Christ was called "quiet time." In my mind, that looked like a cup of coffee at 6 AM with no one around but you and God. Don't get me wrong, I would love the gift of real, nil-decibel-level quiet. The problem enters when my life ceases to be quiet and I think I can no longer meet with the Lord. God gave you the life you have now. He wants to meet you where you are at, however noisy. Mom with screaming kids, that includes you! Single gal with hovering roommates, that is you! Quiet can be a heart posture as well as a noise level. It can happen at any time of the day, in any way. Remember, it is about who we are meeting with; not the place, time, or life decibels. Don't let the details of the perceived perfect "quiet time" keep you from Jesus. 

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"Finding greater pleasure in God will not result from pursuing more experiences of him, 
but from knowing him better"

- Jen Wilkin

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2. Anesthetizing Scripture

Raise your hand if you have ever given or received a baby shower gift wrapped in a bag with cutesie Noah's Ark graphics. Is this not the story where God, in his rightful judgment, wipes out the earth except for eight people? 

It starts out when we are little. This past year, I served as a pre-school teacher in our church. I never realized my propensity to want to "dumb down" Scripture before being challenged to teach on the transfiguration my first day on the job. I heard myself saying, "Can you say transfiguration?" It was difficult to say the word, but it wasn't difficult to teach the real truth: God revealed himself fully to these men, and his holiness blew them away. As I walked through Revelation with Bible Study Fellowship last year, I was amazed to watch my gal pal's four-year-old daughter soak in and understand concepts about God's glorious judgment in a way I never did until I was an adult.

When we grow up, sometimes we do the same thing to ourselves. When we numb God's Word, we limit God. We don't allow the full impact of His Word on our hearts because we don't trust Him to lead us through that hard stuff. We need to lean in, because we need to understand God in his fullness. When we put a band-aid on Scripture, we think we covering up a boo-boo. In reality, we cover up pure beauty.

He didn't leave us alone to grasp these parts of Scripture. He gave us helpers: the Holy Spirit and one another. Let's ask for help, and examine what makes us so uncomfortable about God's real truth, together. Let's not put band-aids over things that God wants us and the world to see about Him. We will never understand unless we allow ourselves to look in the first place. So yes, open up Leviticus, ask for help, and ask for God to reveal himself: his entire, beautiful, holy self.

3. Shying away from the Old Testament

Once you realize that God's Word is not just about making you feel better, you can also realize that the Bible is actually a book about God. It's a book about God from beginning to end; Genesis to Revelation. We need the God of Judges just like we need God of 1,2,3 John. His character remains the same throughout, so we need not categorize him "pre" and "post" Jesus' appearance on earth. Dive in deep to every book, sisters. You can't understand the power of the veil being torn (Matthew 27:51) unless you understand why the veil was there in the first place (Exodus 26:31-35).*

4. Pristine Bibles

Because God's Word is living, active, and abiding, studying is best as an interactive process. God created you to interact with his Word, to do life with it, to be active with it, to abide with it. No longer do we leave our leather, gilded-edge book of Scripture up on the top of our living room bookshelf. We open it, journal in it, color it, sticker it, spill coffee on it. We paint the words on canvas and display them in our households. We open apps for our kids that let them touch the characters in the Bible and ask questions. We use apps where we can see what other Christ followers are studying simultaneous to our personal study. We listen to the Bible while we wash the dishes and walk our dogs and drive to work. We leave our hard copy out on the kitchen counter. We print out the Word and mark it up with notes, circles, brackets, highlights, and questions. We read it out loud to our kids. Yes, we are reverent about it's words and treat them as holy, but we don't have to treat the vehicle of the words as such. We know they are much safer implanted in our real hearts, in our real every day moments, than in a place far away from our realities. The Bible touches every aspect of our life. 

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He didn't leave us alone to grasp these parts of Scripture. He gave us helpers.

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5. Going it alone.

One way to treat Scripture as being alive is to share it with others. God himself is a community of three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created in community with Him and He pointed out that it wasn't right for man to be alone. At the very core of our being, we need each other. Studying the Bible is no different. We need each other to be able to do it in the first place. We need each other to understand it. We need each other to ask for help, to teach one another, to speak it, to listen to it. We need moms and dads to pass it to their kids. We need brothers and sisters to text it throughout the day. We need to talk about it over coffee and dinner and carpool and the subway. No longer is our Bible study a private, concealed interaction with God that starts and ends in fifteen minutes of our days. It infiltrates everything, including our relationships. That is why we gather as Dayton Women in the Word: to remind each other that we are never truly going this alone. Welcome to the sisterhood. 

*Looking for a place to start in the Old Testament? Check out our study resources for the books of Joshua and Daniel. For an overview of the whole bible, try the Seamless study by Angie Smith.

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Jillian Vincent has been a lover of Jesus for twenty years. She's a wife, mother of two and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.  Her favorite verse is Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

You've just sat down to your coffee and your Bible. You flip open the pages and realize you don't know where to turn. Maybe this is the first time you've decided to study the Bible systematically. Or maybe you've just come out of some hard-core studying. You've closed up that book with new highlights and notes etched every which way in your Bible, just as God has etched his words every which way upon your heart. You've hugged the ladies goodbye in your study group and you are still smiling at how they challenged you, learned with you, and taught you. But maybe, like me, you find yourself a little comatose amidst the warm fuzzies. What now?

Here are some pointers about what to do next.

1. Wait for the Lord in prayer. It can be tempting to jump into the next study available without asking the Lord to direct you first. Without His guidance and presence, our efforts are meaningless. First, ask God what He has in mind for you in this specific season of your life. Personally, I have two groups of gal pals going on to two different organized Bible studies, one through James and the other through John. James is my FAVORITE book of the Bible. John is my FAVORITE gospel. Yet, when I stopped to ask God if either of these directions were for me, God was clearly saying no. Not these books. Not this season. Why? I've just recently studied both of these books with my church, and we are going to welcome another baby into our home very soon. So I am prayerfully waiting on the Lord to reveal the specifics of what Bible study is going to look like in the months ahead, and leaning into the discomfort of not having a designated plan just yet. You see, I don't have to, because I know the ultimate Planner, and I trust He has a plan for me.

2. Keep Reading. God wants to commune with you, all the time, through His Word. When we aren't in a designated Bible study, sometimes our accountability is lower, so we don't spend time with God in His Word. We may toy with thoughts such as, "If I'm not really studying, then what is the point of reading at all?" Perhaps this mentality fuels some of the cautious urgency some ladies feel to jump from one study to the next or feel like they ALWAYS need a plan. Certainly, Satan wants to attack you in these vulnerable cracks. He wants your mind off God, dwelling on anything but His Word. The truth is we need to read and study, as both uplift us in different ways. For more help understanding the importance of BOTH Bible reading and Bible study, Natalie uncovers this topic here.

So what do you read when you are in between studies? Here are a few suggestions. 

• Read books chronologically surrounding the book that you just finished studying. If you just finished Daniel with our Dayton Women in the Word study, start with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Lamentations.

• Consider the cross references in your last study. Was there anything you wished you had more time to uncover? Go read through the books from those references.

• Psalms and Proverbs are also lovely choices, as they are full of wisdom, praise, and reflection focused upon the Lord. 

3. Ask some guiding questions. What books or areas of the Bible am I unfamiliar with? Am I lacking understanding about any point of God's story? What is my husband studying? My church? My kids? Would it be beneficial for me to study deeper alongside them at this time? What Bible studies are available in my area?* Do they line up with my season of life? If I can't study in person, what resources are available to me online?** Do I feel God's call to lead a Bible study or go through a study within the context of a discipleship relationship? If so, what might the women I'm leading need to focus on in the Bible right now? The answers to these questions should begin to clarify direction for your studies.

4. Talk to your people. Think about the few close people in your life who can provide Godly counsel on where to spend your time in the Word this season. For me, I check in with my husband, my mentor, and 2-3 close sister-friends. By this point in the process, I share with them where I think God is leading me and why. I invite them to pray with me and keep me accountable to what I commit to study with the Lord. And sometimes, I invite them to study alongside me! 

5. Move forward in faith. The first step is indeed to wait, but don't wait too long. We have every confidence that God has given us all we need to make good decisions, because he has given us "Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3, ESV). Be brave and start your new journey into his Word! God has so much to share with you.

*Bible Study Fellowship classes are available around the world! If you're local to Dayton, there are two women's classes in our area that run during the school year. Visit their website to find out more and consider going to a welcome session!

**There are so many wonderful bible study resources available online. A few of our favorites are She Reads Truth, First 5, Flower Mound Women's Bible Study, and The Bible Project reading plan and videos.

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Jillian Vincent is a member of the Dayton Women in the Word leadership team. She is a lover of Jesus, a wife and a mom. She loves teaching, reading,  and discipling women. 

The kitchen was warm in the heat of the summer but the smell was intoxicating. A sweet aroma of berry and fresh, homemade pastry wafted to greet me with the heat. Natalie was baking homemade pie, but she was apologizing about it. "It's not like your pie. I just do the easy, quick, fold-over crust." 

I assured her that even the most famous chefs bring things down to basics at times. They just call their new creation "deconstructed" to keep it fancy pants. Natalie was making homemade, deconstructed, summer harvest berry pies, and they looked (and tasted!) every bit as delicious as the old-fashioned, fluted classic.

Ladies, sometimes, we need to deconstruct our Bible study. Like the pie crust, it doesn't really matter to me so much how that pie gets in my belly. What I really want is the pie. I will take it in a house. I will take it with a mouse. JUST GIVE ME THAT PIE! Many times, we get too focused on the 'what' and the 'how' of Bible study and forget the 'why.' I LOVE Bible study tools. I LOVE equipping women to study the Bible. But you know what I need to love more? Maybe you expect me to say, "The Bible itself!" here or sing the "B-I-B-L-E" Sunday school song. But really, I love Jesus. I need to love him more than the ways or people that bring me closer to Him. 

The Bible is God's Word: the best way we can get to know Him. When we study it, we are spending time with him and learning what He loves and what He doesn't. This year, I have learned how I can make even better use of my time in His Word and understand it better. Dayton Women in the Word's mission in part is to share study tools with you, but the ultimate goal is getting you to the thing itself, which is really a who: Jesus. At our first city-wide gathering, our girl Natalie put it best by saying, "our thing is not THE thing." Ladies, our thing, the Bible, is not the thing. The thing has always been and forever will be Jesus Christ, our Savior.

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“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

— Matthew 28:19-20, English Standard Version

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At our church, we use a tool for discipleship called "Quad." Essentially, it is a group of four-ish people meeting regularly to encourage and challenge one another's growth in Christ. In my own life, I've seen Jesus use quads to catalyze men and women in their faith. I've also seen quads where "life-dumping" is the focus, where arguments about who is in quad and when quad happens and the content of quad cloud THE THING. My friend always jokes, "Jesus didn't say 'Go, therefore and make QUADS.'" What did he say? He said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples." Satan uses our tools against us, sometimes, yes? 

By all means, outline your Bible chapter. Compare translations. Look up cross references. Memorize. Paraphrase. Study commentaries. Go to conferences and workshops and gatherings. Learn how to study the Bible well. But sometimes, deconstruct. When you begin to notice your heart is focused on checking off 'the steps,' get back to the heart of Bible study. Get back to Jesus. Ask him to refresh your love for Him. Praise Him for caring enough about you to give you His Word. Invite Him back into your study. Walk back into His kitchen, hungry and thirsty for His Word, because you are hungry and thirsty for Him. "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the (wo)man who takes refuge in him!" (Psalm 34:8)

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Jillian Vincent is a member of the Dayton Women in the Word leadership team. She is a lover of Jesus, a wife and a mom. She loves teaching, reading, and discipling women. (And for the record, she makes phenomenal pies.)

Hi, friends! If you're here because you are already familiar with DWITW, then you'll know that our heart beat is encouraging women to grow in their love and knowledge of God through His Word. Right now, we're a few sessions into our summer study on the book of Daniel. Find resources to follow along with our study here.

I want to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on approaching the Bible. I believe it is the Holy Spirit, not a particular study method, who changes us as we read, and that there is not a one-size-fits-all formula for approaching the Word. I do, however, believe there are some general guidelines reflected in Scripture that inform the way we read it. 

Approaching the Bible Prayerfully

I believe the most essential part of our time in the Word is our prayers. Why? Because without prayer, our reading and study is simply an academic pursuit. When we remove prayer, we are removing the Holy, active, Spirit of God -the one who does all the sanctifying, heart-changing, mind-sharpening work- from the equation. We're functionally saying that we can understand all the words without Him. We are quite mistaken if we believe that we can grow in wisdom or see lasting change in our lives without calling on the Lord! Proverbs 3:6 tells us to acknowledge Him in all our ways- that certainly includes our time in the Word.

Now, hear me on this- I am not saying that if you accidentally forget to pray during a bible reading session that you've got to do it all over again or that it was a waste of time- of course not! I am as guilty as anyone of not praying as I should. The Lord sees our imperfections, knows our deepest motivations, and loves us still! He is aware when we are opening the Word in humility and when we are relying on ourselves instead of Him. Let us not feel condemnation (Romans 8:1) in our prayer lives, but freedom to repent and start again. A regular habit of prayer before, during and after our time in the Word has great transforming power.

So, how do we pray? We speak honestly with God about the condition of our hearts. Before we read, we ask God to open our eyes and ears. We ask Him to reveal Himself. We ask him to prepare us. We confess when we are tired or apathetic or we don't want to open the pages. We ask Him to change us by His Spirit.

While we read, we ask Him questions. We tell Him when we need help. We thank Him for His promises. We ask what is to be learned and how we can apply it to our lives. We wonder with Him about how all the small stories fit into the Big Story. We ask Him to show us Jesus in the text. We pray the holy words of Scripture back to the Holy One who wrote them.

After we read, we thank Him for his perfect character, for his grand plan of redemption, for saving wayward sinners, for giving us the gift of His Word. We thank Him for anything and everything. We ask Him to help us use and apply and share what we've learned. We praise Him for wisdom gained, for especially touching insights, for loving us so well. We tell Him we can't wait to meet him face-to-face.

Of course, these are only a starting point. I personally love praying the words of Scripture back to God. Where my words fail, His never do.

Why We Need Bible Study AND Bible Reading

What's the difference between these terms, anyway? Bible reading is what it sounds like: reading the Bible simply, a few pages or chapters or a book at a time, as you are led. Bible study refers to bible reading alongside other resources. This includes reading from a study bible, using footnotes and cross references and consulting commentaries or other inductive study tools. 

As a student and teacher of the Word, I have found that I need both of these approaches to the Bible in my life. Bible study, with all its resources, can help give us historical context, ground us in the larger story of God's redemption, reveal connections to other parts of the Bible, and answer questions we didn't know we had. There's greater opportunity to explore nuances and themes. But we can easily become lost in the many details and tools and voices of deeper study and miss out on the voice of God Himself.

Bible reading is where I find my wonder, awe and adoration of God grows most fully. When I take in Scripture this way, often reading a whole book in one sitting, I learn things that I miss when I am studying a few verses or chapters at a time. I see God's glory and experience His presence in a way that can get lost during times of deeper study. 

Now, hear me again- I don't want you to leave this post thinking you have to add more things to your spiritual to do list. I want to encourage you that there is freedom in the ways we approach the Bible! Bible study is wonderful, but we don't have to study that way all the time. Bible reading is beautiful, be we can depart from it at times to go deeper. I believe these two approaches go hand-in-hand, and we can freely embrace both of them as balm for our weary souls.

One warning I would give is not to elevate study over reading, or reading over study. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. We see both study (Ezra 7:9-11, Ecclesiastes 12:9) and reading (typically aloud and in community, as seen in Nehemiah 8:8,9:3; or personally as with kings in Deuteronomy 17:18-20) modeled for us in Scripture. Whatever the method, we know without a doubt that we are called to love God's Word (Psalm 119).

What This Looks Like In My Life

Maybe you're wondering how this plays out practically. When I am actively teaching through a particular text, I lean fully into bible study and all its tools. I have a voracious appetite for all things relating to the book I'm teaching and I can't get enough! But even during these times, I desire less intense moments of refreshment, where I simply read the Word and let its truths wash over me and renew my spirit.

When I am not teaching, I typically do more simple bible reading, in longer sections. I may read a particular book a few times in a row, and then pursue lighter study on it if I have questions. If we are being led through a specific book of the Bible in our corporate church gatherings, I will usually spend extra time in that book as well. 

When I am in a season that presents challenges to my bible reading (times of transition or grief; new babies, etc), I do my best to extend myself grace. I find creative ways to stay in the Word like listening to an audio bible, having someone read Scripture over me, calling memorized passages to mind, leaving my bible open on the table, or reading it one-handed on an app on my phone.

Our lives are constantly moving from season to season; some offering us more time in the Word, some offering less. I urge you not to feel defeated if many days have gone by since you last opened the Book. The Lord has gone before us in all our seasons and He will make a way for us to commune with Him. He can grow in us a passion for His Word that pushes us past the obstacles and helps us open those sacred pages, even on the hardest of days.

A Few Closing Thoughts

Oh, sisters. There is such freedom for us in our bible reading! For the hungry mind, there are endless study resources. For the weary soul, there is comfort knowing we can simply read and be changed. We can find strength, peace, joy and hope whenever we open the pages. And as our sweet friend Jillian is known to say, "Don't do it alone." The Word is meant to be heard and discussed and cherished in a community setting. If you're struggling in this area, ask God to show you someone in your life to come alongside you. And if you're in the Dayton, OH area, you have a ready and willing community of sisters in DWITW.

The Lord is with you. There is freedom. Enjoy the precious gift of God's living Word!

For More On This Topic (some foundational, some practical):

Reading the Bible vs. Studying the Bible: What's the Difference?

7 Arrows For Bible Reading

Three Tips for Better Bible Reading (includes a helpful infographic)

Let's Be Honest: Reasons Why We Don't Read Our Bible

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Natalie Herr is the founder and team leader of Dayton Women in the Word. She is a servant of God, a wife, and a mom of three. She loves teaching and equipping women with God's Word.

All photos were taken by Mindy Braun. [The Brauns Photography]