I used to read the Bible in a hurry, and go to school or college or work.
The people who personally know me knows that despite reading the Bible for more than a decade, nothing in my life reflected Christ for years.
For me, Bible reading was a daily ritual for my spiritual and physical well-being. I was deceived!
I was missing the 2 essential steps after reading the Bible.
Before we dive into the steps, let me tell you one more important thing. Bible reading is all about quality than quantity.
I can read even one verse (and follow the 2 essential steps) and be led by the Holy spirit, rather than reading an entire chapter in a hurry and ignoring the 2 essential steps.
It was only in the recent years, I started adapting to quality. I read just 3 to 5 verses a day on an average, but with proper understanding and introspection.
Ok, I guess you now know what are the 2 essential steps! They are:
Understand
Introspect
In this approach, I restarted with the book of Matthew in the new testament. Everyday, I start from where I left the previous day, just to ensure I don't miss the continuity.
I've made up my mind to spend about 10 to 15 minutes everyday to execute the 2 steps, immediately after reading the Bible, and about another 10 to 15 minutes for prayer.
Let's now see how to Understand and Introspect.
Understand
When I read the Bible, I try to ensure my best focus on each and every word I read. The reason is:
A lot of emotions are hidden in the words we read, and we often overlook them.
In some cases, there are huge differences between 2 words that we think are having the same meaning.
To give a simple example, almost every Bible reader knows the parable about the prodigal son.
When I read it, my usual tendency was to think I've already read this over 10 or 20 times. So let me read it as fast as I can and returned back quickly to my world of entertainment and fun.
What I really missed is the emotional nuances in those verses - like when the son returns back, the father did not say "Ok, let him feel guilty and ashamed for what he did.", like an earthly father.
But on seeing his son coming from far, the father ran to him, and hugged and kissed him out of joy. He didn't even wait for his son to apologize, and even when the son started conveying his apology statements (that he prepared immediately after he decided to return back to his father), the father did not care to hear it.
If you notice this parable keenly in Luke 15, you'll realise that the son did not complete conveying all he prepared.
This clearly shows the father became sad when the son left and was waiting eagerly waiting for his return. The parable beautifully portrays how much God loves a sinner (despite their sins), and how much He longs for sinners (or backsliders) to return back to Him with true repentance.
I was missing this beauty of God's love by reading the Bible in a hurry, and often was reluctant to return back to God (thinking God will not love me), whenever I felt I sinned. Before I realised these emotions, Jesus just seemed robotic to me. Little did I know He was full of emotions.
Note: God's love is not a license to sin, but becoming immune to sins (i.e) the tendency to hate sins that were attractive once. Ex: lust. The prodigal son parable is to convey God's love for a returning sinner to start over again to lead a sinless life (instead of sinning again).
Ok, coming back to the steps, when reading some verses, I have even felt there is nothing for me to personally learn and change from it, and that's completely ok. For example, Matthew chapter 1.
But even for chapters like Matthew 1, you can read commentaries to gain a better understanding. I usually refer to the commentaries in the Enduring word website when I don't understand certain verses.
Referring to commentaries, at times is essential for me because, I don't know of the culture or the political situation in Jesus's time, and a basic knowledge of them is required to understand the context of some verses.
Now let's go to the step 2.
Introspect
Once you understand the meaning of the verse, the next step is to introspect. Pray and ask God to reveal about yourself to you.
Many times, we blindly tend to apply the verses conveying God's judgement to people we don't like (or upon those who hurt or insulted us), and the promise (or the blessing verses) to ourselves.
That's totally wrong. Little do we realize how much we as humans tend to favor ourselves and follow double standards. Yes, we always seem right to us, and that's a huge deception or challenge we face from a spiritual standpoint.
A simple example, that most believers could not deny is how much we seek God's forgiveness, and how much we hesitate to forgive others!
The second step, Introspection based on what we read in the Bible everyday in God's presence is the only way we can get rid of that deception.
For me, a minimum of 30-minutes is required everyday, to read the Bible, understand and introspect and complete with a short prayer (about what should I change in myself).
While I've transformed a lot as a person after sincerely reading the Bible, the Introspection step still keeps revealing me how much more should I change to become like Christ, for which we are called for :)
To conclude, here's are the verses from Psalm 1:1 to 3.
1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
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