A Truth to Believe

 How Can We Understand the Bible?

God gave us the Bible so we can know who he is, trust in him, and find our joy in him. When people read the Bible to learn about God and follow his ways, God helps them understand it. God does this through reading and thinking, but also by the special help of the Holy Spirit.

We can understand the Bible in a natural way by carefully reading and thinking over the text. We must pay attention to what an author wrote because the meaning is found in an author’s words. This takes humility, patience, and careful thought.

But we also need God’s supernatural help to understand the Bible. The Holy Spirit inspired every word of the Bible, and he helps us when we prayerfully ask for understanding. The same God who wrote the Bible dwells within us and helps us understand the Scriptures as we read and study them.

Think over what I saw, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything (2 Timothy 2:7).

Something about Living

Sometimes our emphasis on productivity can be misplaced. We keep trying to dial up our intensity but what we really need is to narrow in our focus.

A Quote

Do you find yourself impatient and grumbling at God's timing and design in your life? I know I do at times.

Thomas Charles encourages us, "How Gracious is the design to bring us to repentance for sin, or to stop us from falling into temptation, or to prepare us by previous discipline for some humbling service! Is not all this good? Away then with all impatience and all murmurings. Nothing befalls us without a cause: and no trouble comes upon us sooner, or presses more heavily, or continues longer, than our case requires. What our short-sighted ignorance calls adversities or evils, are in reality and truth, well-designed and gracious blessings, and form a part of the means employed by God's goodness and grace to prepare us for the exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

As one of his children, God is doing so much more than you realize. Trust him and keep pressing onward.

Thomas Charles - Spiritual Counsels

A Booklist

While we can understanding God's Word through the power of the Holy Spirit, it also takes learned habits and principles of interpretation to mine God's word.

Here are our favorite books on skills and principles in biblical interpretation.