How to Study the Bible at Home

Have you ever opened the Bible, read a page, closed it, and thought "I didn't understand any of that"? You're in very ordinary company.

Here's what I've learned after years of sitting with women who were handed a Bible and left to work it out alone: the problem is almost never intelligence. It's that nobody ever showed them a method. So in this guide I'll show you how to study the Bible at home using four questions, twenty minutes, and a notebook. That's all you need.

Before you start: choose the right book

Please don't begin at Genesis and try to read straight through. Many sincere people have given up in Leviticus and quietly concluded the fault was theirs. It wasn't.

Pick one short book and stay in it until you reach the end. Read ten to fifteen verses at a time, in order.

The method: four questions

This is old, it isn't clever, and it works. Ask these four questions in order, every time.

1. What does it say?

Read the passage twice, slowly. The second time, read it aloud if you can. Then, without looking, say back what happened or what was argued.

Can't do it? Read it again. This step sounds trivial, and it's the one people skip most. That's exactly why so much "Bible study" turns into a group sharing opinions.

2. What did it mean to the people who first heard it?

Who's speaking? To whom? What's just happened? A letter written to a frightened church reads very differently once you know the church was frightened.

Most study Bibles have a short introduction to each book. Those few paragraphs are worth far more than they look. If you'd like a free overview of any book, BibleProject's book summaries are clear and short.

3. What does this show me about God?

Not first about yourself. Every passage is saying something about His character, His promises or His intentions. Name it in one sentence before you move on.

4. What does it ask of me?

Now get specific. Not "I should be kinder," but "I'll speak to my sister tomorrow and apologise."

A general resolution changes nothing by Friday. A specific one can be obeyed or disobeyed, which is rather the point.

Write it down, in four lines

Keep a notebook. Write one short line for each question. It takes three minutes and it changes everything, for two reasons.

First, you think more clearly with a pen in your hand. Second, in six months you can look back and see what God has been saying to you repeatedly. That's usually the thing you've been avoiding.

How to study the Bible at home: a weekly plan

Twenty minutes on most days will take you further in a year than two hours once a month.

• Five days: one passage, the four questions, four lines in the notebook.
• One day: read back the week's notes. Anything repeating?
• One day: rest, or read a Psalm slowly with no questions at all.

Attach it to something that already happens in your day. After the morning tea. Before you sleep. A habit with no anchor usually drifts, and that's the single most common reason people who meant to study the Bible at home quietly stop.

What if you can't read easily?

You're not shut out of this. Audio Bibles exist in Urdu and many regional languages, and the four questions work just as well when a passage is heard rather than read. Listen twice, then say it back in your own words.

When you get stuck

Here's the honest part of learning how to study the Bible at home: you'll reach passages you can't make sense of. Everyone does, including people who've studied for decades. I still do.

Mark the verse, write your question beside it, and carry on. Don't let one difficult verse stop the whole habit.

Then find someone to ask. This is a large part of what we do: sitting with women and working through the passage they got stuck on. There's no question so basic it isn't worth asking. In my experience the people who ask the basic questions out loud end up understanding the most.

Frequently asked questions